Grrl Power #563 – Trojan hillbilly
Thus ends the saga of Coot, cause you know, in the history of comics, no one has ever come back from definitely being dead like this. I mean, he blew up. He wasn’t caught in an explosion, he was the warhead.
Sciona gave Cooter a potion to drink before sending him through the portal. Said it would let him see things no one else can see, do things no one else can do, and was chocked full wind, fire and lots of fiber. And by fiber she meant explosive tentacles. Technically fibrous, so, only a bit of a lie. Cooter was busy making a joke about how anything full of fiber makes him full of wind, so at least we can respect him for that.
This page may be my sound effect record for me. I’m sure in the annals of comic history, there are pages which put this one to shame. It’s hard not to imagine there’s a Groo page or something similar that’s all black panels with about 15 onomatopoeias per panel. Maybe some cartoon eyes showing.
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nice big trouble in little china reference in the synopsis
Right. The Potion makes the imbiber better at whatever they are good at. Sadly one of the things Cooter was great at was explosive farts…
damn, almost feel bad for the guy.
Almost
I do feel bad for him.
*puts cool compress on Pander‘s forehead*
I get worried when you suppress the dark side, for so long. You know what happens when you do that for too long?
*looks meaningfully at the page above*
I actually do. His family is killed by monsters, he dedicates his life to slaying monsters (never having the opportunity to learn they’re as diverse as humans and not all bad), only to be slain by them, used for their own means, at the very end. He probably had dreams of kind of being like those guys from supernatural, to be some kind of hero, to stand up to the darkness that destroyed his family and life rather than run… It’s actually a pretty tragic story, his dying thoughts being things that confirmed he was right but failing to make a difference at it.
Sure, he may have been socially reprehensible, but I wouldn’t expect losing his family (especially if he was young when it happened) and then having noone believe him on how for his entire life would do much to help his social skills. The very fact he wasn’t in an insane asylum and allowed to buy a gun speaks significantly in his favor after something like that.
Lots of monsters are going to be killed because he died that way. I think his ghost would be fine with his death being used in such a way.
Here the thing about Coot backstory, on #532 Doctor Chuckles mention “Coot’s” family, “monsters”, their “cause” in air quotes. That to me sound there at least some information left out to a total lie. I get the impression that either they found a random hobo and plug memories into him or the monsters were actual people and Coot had a mental breakdown that convince himself the monster that cause it. It may explain why he could only see fake people instead of monsters.
So I never felt sorry for him because he look like sacrificial idiot from the get go.
Any human would be subject to the effects of the Veil and see people instead of monsters. However that does not affect the rest of your proposal, so I just mention that as a point in its own right.
I think Ultramagma is suggesting that Coot he wouldn’t have been able to see monsters attack his family, as monsters, as any such would have been Veiled.
However, I speculate that the Veil has a threshold; that you can not remain Veiled if you act too monstrous. It is also plausible that altered states of consciousness (such as adrenaline spikes, recreational pharmaceuticals, etc.) may rent the Veil.
Also, you can choose not to be Veiled, like Dabbles, the ones who killed Coot’s family may have been feral or ones who wanted monsters to be known, and feared, again
Well if you saw someone running across the ceiling and biting your brother’s head off, even if you saw them as a human I imagine the word ‘monster’ might pop up in your mind.
But, yea, I think the supernaturals have to work with the Veil to stop discrepancies from standing out. For instance we have seen Dabbler handling people with her unseen arms, when disguised as a human. Now both those times it was probably her racial illusion ability but it shows the general principles that are likely to be involved.
The Veil is basically an adaptive world-wide illusion. But illusions are not perfect and doing things which draws attentions to the anomolies may well allow idividuals to see through the illusion. For instance Sydney is no longer fooled by the Veil. Previously we could rationalise it that they do not have the Veil turned on in their bases.
However we have seen various supernatural things outside of a base (the power-duplicating construct and Decollete, in the Halomobile as examples) in their unveiled forms, even without the Trussight orb being held.
We should consider that this may just be for our convenience, given that a fight with a ‘giant construct’ who looked like a big guy all the time, would not be very impressive. Or maybe this is just a continuity error on Dave’s part.
However if we take it as intentional, then there are various possibilities.
1) Each instance is handled on a case-by-case basis. Sydney knows that Decollete is a succubus so is not fooled by her human guise. A giant construct leaping onto a roof and attacking has no credible real world alternative explanation, so the Veil cannot cover it up.
2) As Guesticus says those exceptions were ones that wanted to be seen. Sciona deliberately wanted to give the impression her goal was to expose the Veil, so ordered the construct to make itself plainly visible.
3) Suppressing the Veil may not be possible for everyone covered by it. Succubi have powerful racial illusions so can probably override the Veil. Likewise the construct was a power-duplicator so Sciona could have ensured it was exposed to any suitable power capable of countering the Veil.
In this option bases (or at leas the ones where supernaturals want to socialise) would probably suppress the Veil, so that they can see each other in their true forms. Possibly this can be altered by adjusting settings, on the local Sigil, or a base commander casting a spell or using an appropriately enchanted item, in the base.
4) If you become aware of the Veil’s existence you gain immunity to it. The Veil has been lifted permanently. Note that this would fit with Coot still seeing Sciona and crew as humans (although he was aware that monsters are real he is unaware of the Veil).
5) Mixtures of some or all of the above.
6) Aardvark. There are other possible options but it is too much like aardvark to detail them all.
It’s bugging me now. I know Coot is likely dead and not coming back, but his existence and subsequent lack there of just hints at too many details that feel they need addressed.
For example, if Coot’s family was actually killed by monster races, why was the situation not addressed? (Is there no recompense for victims of crimes to help maintain silence and prevent monster hunters?)
If Coot’s mind was altered to fake all of it, what’s to prevent monster races from getting anyone’s bank account numbers and then faking wastes of money as to why the money is gone? What protects normies from being abused by the veil, if anything? (As a super, if the answer was “nothing”, it’d be really tempted to break the thing myself as it’s reducing humans to pure fodder.)
If Coot was just crazy, that implies the veil doesn’t care about people’s perceptions of monsters just the immediate effect; so what’s to prevent Sciona from effectively dropping the veil by just having a bunch of monsters wear monster costumes and do things only monsters would do? That seems a lot simplier than trying to bring down a lot of heavily guarded infrastructure.
We have no reason to suppose that it was not, given that we have no information other than the fact that they were killed.
It kind of defeats the purpose if you pay out compensation, in the way that you suggest, as it then provides proof that not only are there monsters but that there is a conspiracy to cover up their existence!
It is a very high risk strategy to try and bribe someone who has just lost a loved one in a vicious attack. It is all too likely that they would act on principle, or simply emotionally, from grief, rather than from greed.
I do think it plausible thought that money may be set aside to provide for victims and also (separately) to fund any necessary cover-up. The former would be necessary to mollify the individuals and factions who favour having the Veil dropped. Ensuring that justice is done (slaying the perpetrators and compensating the victims) would help to counter the negative aspects of the Veil.
What they could not do was do so openly. Which would include to the victims. Far better, as part of their anonymous compensation scheme, would be to bribe a shrink to ‘volunteer’ to provide counseling to the victim.
Being sure to pick one who would be gifted enough to convince them that their mind was just coping with traumatic memories by introducing monstrous elements to distance themselves from realising that people commit such crimes.
So Coot may well have had some ‘lucky windfalls’ after the death of his family. Or all the debts associated with each of them may have been ‘generously’ wiped out by the creditors (who would have had some extra not to mention that they had actually been anonymously paid).
But Cooter was probably just too ornery to accept that ‘it was all in his mind’.
As a young child “monster” is also far more easily evoked by completely non-supernatural occurrences. I have a nephew whose house caught fire when he was a young child. It was caused by some bad wiring in the attic and happened in the middle of the night, unfortunately causing the entire home to be burned down. There was no loss of life, thankfully.
He described the occurrence as “monsters burned down the house.”
The firemen, of course dressed in their full, bulky gear with oxygen tanks, axes, and helmets including full face masks, evoked this in his young mind. And who can blame him? Imagine being awakened as a young child by your grandparents (who were babysitting for the parents while they were away on a weekend “parents alone” trip) with the house already full of smoke and flames, being rushed out of the house, outside in the dark there is more smoke and flashing lights, confusing the situation. The adults in the situation are all fretful and afraid, when you’ve never seen them as anything other than strong, wise and solid before ever in your short life. And then those firemen go past you into the house, hell maybe they pulled them out I’m not sure of the details. Monsters is an easy conclusion for a young, confused child.
Yea, all too likely.
Plus, fascinating to see the Veil at work, despite the testimony of a first-hand witness!
His Big Brother Jack is gonna be fuggin’ PISSED!!! :O
I like how you seem to have covered almost every possible type of attack.
Well rabbits are noticeably missing.
But I doubt that Sciona has the prerequisite capabilities to use the Holy Hand-grenade of Antioch, so if they had gone fully comprehensive defenses she would have probably not tried this venture in the first place.
Attack Rabbits are banned under Section ZZ-Alpha 693 of the International Geneva Concords on Banned Weapons of Mass Destruction, Inhumane Treatment of Combatants, Paragraph 4, subsection 92. Look it up! It’s all true!
Bunny Lords in the remake of Shadow Warrior and Shadow Warrior 2 are epic and brutal, some of the toughest non-named mobs you can fight, but it’s worth it hacking up all the bunnies you see to spawn em cuz they drop some sweet lewt
Yes, but Bun-Bun ignores the treaty, and nobody quite dares to try to force him.
Close. It’s Section ZZ-Alpha 693, subsection “Look at the bones!”
DaveB didn’t have room in that panel to show da bunneh gnawing at his ankles
There’s no Void, Chrono Stasis, or Mana Siphon/Ground.
(cause if there had been a siphon the explosive magic would have been drained)
Or paper. Papercuts are evil.
they may be monsters but they are still people with and civilized so of course no paper cuts.
Would have been smarter to trap intruders in energy bubbles, I guess. Maybe teleport them out in a room which looks exactly like that one, too – just without any of the items.
There are a million ways they could have designed that trap room, it would not have helped if the intruder was just teleporting into the storage rooms / teleported the items from the storage room out of the vault.
Coming to think of it – is there no way to “ward” a room so that teleporting… or bloodporting… in or even using magic in these rooms becomes impossible?
The best approach by far was the one Arc-Aegis was coming up with: Different air pressure and or emissions which are mind altering / poisonous / narcotic (See here) in the storage room would keep anyone from entering. Transmission could be with either a magical virus or substance and via aerosol or by contact : Teleportion would take some residue around the item with it, after all.
Not to mention that all artifacts in the vaults should be triple cursed, encased in lead and finally trapped with rubberbanding spells – as soon as they are removed they will try very hard to come back to the place they were left at. Finally add a tracer and a marker to complete the set: the tracer will allow to find it if the thief has gotten around all of that and the marker will mark the thief as the culprit.
But let’s see where this is going… maybe the vault room we saw is actually more like a show room – once you are in there, you can access the items from a panel on the wall to get them on the table in the middle of the room… and the containers are hidden in a pocket of holding somewhere “else” – but can only be accessed in that particular room.
Sorry for missing a few punctuations.. And grammar… and whatever is wrong with my sentences – read it before posting and reread it after posting – and suddenly I saw a lot of problems… Oh well.
It appens, I wooden t worry about it.
The trouble with any vault is that it is a static defense. Given enough time, and resources, villains can come up with a counter to practically any traps or guardians. Unless you have dynamic defenses, with a tactically gifted mind controlling the defenses, and capable of developing new ones, on the fly, that would always be the weakest point.
As soon as Sciona gained the assistance of Twilight Council insiders, the vault was doomed. Assuming they could get their claws on the plans, or otherwise gain enough information about the vault (such as speaking with people involved in building it), she merely need find a counter for each layer of traps and guardians.
With all the active defenders looking at problems elsewhere, and the alarm disabled, she had the run of the place.
Like… a Guardian?
Naa, like The Red Queen. A mastermind with access to genetic engineering, robotics, weapons and research laboratories and fully-automated factories, who can create and adapt an army of guardians.
If they detect anyone researching, hacking into or scanning the facility they can hunt them down and kill them before their plans get the chance to mature.
And if resistance is too strong (say from a national spy agency supported by a full military) it can fall back on the tried-and-tested ‘nuke them from orbit’.
That does seem like it’d be a lot more effective.
well I am surprised that the room isn’t under a permanent Dimensional Anchor, which prevents, teleporting, blinking, phasing and pretty much all other forms of extra-dimensional/extra-temporal travel into an area
Do you know how costly that sort of thing is? And not just in material components
considering such a vault probably hold potentially reality shattering items, I’d say that would be worth the investment
The answer is “Not a clue!” then
1,200 gp every month for a 15th level caster with Extend Spell or a metamagic rod of extend spell to come in and cast Dimensional Lock. Alternatively, you could spend 120,000 gp on a custom magic item that has Dim. Lock on at all times. That would be 2,400 lbs of gold(50 golds coins is 1lb) which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $45.8 million.
Step 1: Fill room with maguffins.
Step 2: Scan room.
Step 3: Fill room with solid material.
Step 4: Have door to room empty added material when proper entry is requested.
Cunning plan.
Proof against teleporters but not individuals who can phase through matter. It also gives traps, guardians and guards a problem in countering the phasing burglar.
Ah, but how would the phasers determine the location of the mcguffins in the solid material? Especially if you shielded it from xrays or other scanning technologies.
Well no mention of the latter has been proposed yet. But in this setting all the heroes we have seen do have the required secondary powers necessary to use their abilities. Anybody who could phase through objects, but who could not sense where they were going, would be limited to just walking through walls, doors* and other thin objects where they could not loose their sense of direction.
For a phaser to even get down to this vault (assuming they were doing it without other aid) they would need the full package of secondary abilities, which, in addition to sensing where they are going, would include not needing to breathe. Absolutely essential for any long trip.
Likewise they would need to be able to propel themselves despite not being able to walk. In other words flight, hovering, telekinesis or some such capability.
Whilst this may seem like a lot of ‘extras’ do bear in mind that every super speeder needs just as many in order to do their gig, and we have a number in the story already (Mach the Knife and Maxima being two prominent examples). Plus we know the setting does have phasing supers, as that was one of Shadow Boxer’s powers.
Nothing about him suggests that he may have x-ray vision (which does not exist in this setting, in any event, if you recall the shower scene). If he is a fully-equipped phaser, perhaps he can sense anything in shadow?
Something that would be blocked in this present vault. But there would be plenty of in the solid vault concept (an area which does have light whenever the vault is in use, but has objects blocking any light source, at other times).
* This is one of my super powers.
i agree on Mach the knife, but in Max’s case the required scondary powers just happen to be her other primary powers( hightened reaction,superhuman senses,extreme durability) so using her as an example of secondary powers being included in such cases seems kind of inaccurate
I broadly agree, but super speeders have more than you listed. For instance there is the friction heating, even if Maxima herself is protected by the force fields, she should have been hot enough to burn the clothes off anybody touching her, when she pulled her speed stunt in the council chamber.
Likewise that would have involved a sonic boom (even with her hands disassembling the grenade) given that it all occurred whilst the grenade was still being propelled at bullet-fast speeds!
Whilst, in the past, I have discussed how her force fields might overcome this (by ‘grabbing’ air and moving it around, behind her path of travel, then absorbing any excess energy it has built up), this is just my rationalisation of how her required secondary power works, it is not something inherent to having a force field.
Note that (barring possible pointy ear aided hearing) Maxima does not have any super-senses. She does have top-tier reflexes listed. However she lacks Ren’s enhanced time sense (Max only moves fast because her force fields are pushing her, that does not allow for anything to boost her sight, for example).
Therefore when Maxima is operating at her top speed there is another required secondary power kicking in to allow her to perceive and mentally process the information fast enough to function as we have seen.
Actually, if we look at another Comic series, in X-men, one of the story lines from like 12 years ago, Kitty Pryde phased through several dozen meters or more of solid material when she located Colossus. I think people that can phase can draw what they need to breath from the material that they phase through. The problem with phasers is when they run into super dense material. The denser the material the harder it would (should) be to phase through, resulting it it taking longer to get through the objects. Now the densest thing that I know about in comics is the heart of a neutron star, which is what Odin supposedly made his metallic eye-patch out of.
Thoughts Yorp?
It’s all up to the writers and how much they want to maintain continuity and not just invent another superpower in order to justify their hero winning the situation they set up for them. Superman comics were notorious for inventing new superpowers even when it wasn’t needed. (Seriously, there was “super-knitting” in one comic…)
Kitty once needed to breath while phased and couldn’t just stand in a cave wall while the enemy took lunch and then moved on. Several dozen meters might be possible as a breath holding exercise, depending on the definition of “several.” I could probably walk or run 2 dozen meters without needing to take a breath. After that I don’t know, it’s not something I’ve practiced.
As Oberon says you can hold your breath. When I was young, I learnt about the pearl-diving communities in the pacific, who could hold their breaths for extremely long times, due to years of practice. Which inspired me to do the same. Albeit initially just in the bath. But we did get a swimming pool whilst I was young enough that it made a difference.
I could swim two lengths of the pool underwater. OK it was only a small family pool. But with a diving start I could do the same with our school swimming pool, in my teens (not that I am pretending that was particularly big either).
As for Kitty going longer distances or times than seems feasible by breath-holding, just consider whether she has demonstrated partial phasing. If she has ever reached a hand through a wall and (whilst still having part of her in the wall) tapped someone on the shoulder, then she has advanced skills. This seems likely with the X-man training.
In which case phasing through regular earth or even stone with occasional gaps (which is fairly normal with stata and geological folding etc), then she could locate such a spot (bearing in mind the caveats already mentioned in this thread) and phase her lips into existence, so that she can inhale.
OK it would only be the odd breath here and there, and it will be musty and earthy. But it would be enough to keep her going. Which I feel to be more credible than phasing air directly into the lungs or blood stream. Ballsy though, either way. Rather like cave-diving without scuba gear, and hoping that you will find a convenient air-pocket!
However air pockets are reasonably likely in earth, provided you avid waterlogged areas. A good education in geology would obviously help reduce the risks. One of which would be to avoid super-dense areas completely. So do not try to go through those giant-diamonds, deep below the Earth. And be careful about falling through giant geodes, the drop can be nasty.
Ahh yes, every injury that causes blood to be released or harmed provides a conduit for Sciona’s magics to counterattack.
Nice to have such a formidable archvillain.
Cooter, you are a pawn. And this is why we send the pawns in first..
So she broke him… like a… uh… pawn broker.
<..>
You heard nothing. Uh… Read nothing! READ nothing!
Is that method of death/destruction a Prototype reference? Because that looks like a Prototype reference.
I rarely used that move. Was more fun to eat everyone! Fifty machine guns, forty nine, etc, one confused frightened man running away.
I prefer the “patsy.”
eat a guy, then claim another guy is you. watch him go “Wait, Nooooo!!!” as his own buddies gun him down. cruel, yet darkly hilarious.
“Thus ends the saga of Coot, cause you know, in the history of comics, no one has ever come back from definitely being dead like this. I mean, he blew up. He wasn’t caught in an explosion, he was the warhead.”
So you’re saying he is not only merely dead, he’s really most sincerely dead?
*starts going through Coot’s pockets for change*
Yup. Not ‘dead’ or ‘mostly dead’. ‘All dead’. “BWABOOM dead”.
Wizard of Oz and Princess Bride reference? I’m lovin’ it.
McDonald’s reference?
Can I haz cheezeburger?
Come on, If his name isn’t Uncle Ben, he can’t stay dead for too long. Poor Uncle Ben… sitting in the Comic Afterlife just waiting for someone to stay with him for more than a few months
You would think that somebody owning a rice-selling company would be able to afford a few mediums to communicate with the land of the living?
LAWYER: This is an extremely unusual behest for a will. But we can ring-fence a trust-fund we set up now, before you die, so that mediums can be hired from that, rather than your estate. But you should have years to go, so why the urgency?
UNCLE BEN: May convinced me to take part in a past-life regression session. Turns out that I keep dying over and over, usually around about the time that Peter goes off to college. I figured this time I would take some precautions!
Ermm… Atomic Man? He nuclear detonated and was returned to his suit molecule by molecule.
Aaaand, there was also anime… I think I remember an exploding slime girl from a… very awkward boob’n swords show called Queens Blade. (I haven’t watched it but I’ve seen gif’s from it in other combat discussions) The character survives apparently.
I know at least one guy that would actually come back easier from this than from just getting shot in the head… =p
Then again, his thing is basically energy based regeneration, so you’d be better off just bashing his skull in with a hammer and sticking him in a freezer…
Usually folks who can do that kind of thing are supernatural or super. Or a god.
Coot was just human. Barely. But nothing more.
He’s basically as supernatural as they come, but not really god level of power. Possibly demigod, but then again a lot of supers reach that level sooner or later.
Basically he’s a shadow mage that had his soul replaced and tinkered with after he died by suits who wanted to create super soldiers, his body checks out as mortal so he dies to pretty much anything that could do in a human, he just kinda gets better after a while when he’s sucked enough ambient energy out of his surroundings to regenerate.
So he’s pretty much got a lifetime pass at the crematorium.
Doesn’t sound much like Coot though.
Nah, Coot seemed to be Carrot levels of non-magical. Or at least his sword… =p
Ghost Rider’s actually capable of coming back from being reduced to dust. doesn’t come up often, but he can.
Which one? There are quite a few now, not counting that time when they showed virtually every country had it’s own Rider (the Indian rode a flaming skeletal Elephant!!!)
It should have been a bull.
Sounds like a lot of flaming bull to me.
I still believe in Coot.
His nunchuck skills and Patriotism can get him out of this one.
Speaking of patriotism, the Council needs to have a serious look at the problem of illegal immolation. Those people think they can just show up and explode themselves anywhere they want. It can really hurt the local property values.
Returning to her secret lair, Sciona finds the following notice, posted on the entrance:
I think they need to upgrade their security for REGULAR folk. The turrets didn’t even try to shoot the tentacles fired at them / the tentacles didn’t appear to have to dodge the turrets fire. Surely the disintegration ray would have stood a chance.
How would regular folk take out the turrets? It’s called a tank. Maybe on the disintegration ray would have hurt a tank… but based on the close quarters, I’m not sure THAT disintegration ray would actually penetrate metal plate… because when the disintegration ray hits the other side of the room, you wouldn’t want it to penetrate the vault walls! Tanks drives in, shoots turrets. Done. Also that skull guardian in front room wouldn’t hurt a tank: you would shoot him while he was doing the weakness aura thing… might effect the driver… but you don’t need strength to drive a tank.
I don’t think Coot was the warhead… he’s more like the missile: the black tentacles are clearly the warhead (they charge up before everything goes boom): makes sense they needed to hit each turret to before blowing up… otherwise the turrets would still be functional.
I assume regular science-based teleportation is blocked… because that should be easy: build a Faraday cage around the entire vault: its going to make teleporation INTO the vault nearly impossible. In fact because the vault door was a ridiculous thickness of metal (lets assume steel), then it should be a safe bet the vault is steel blocks of the same thickness and hence the vault itself IS ALREADY a Faraday cage of ridiculous attenuation (i.e. definitely no science-based teleportation). As for magic-based teleportation… well that depends on whether magic in the Grrl Universe has to obey the basics of the Universe, or doesn’t (i.e. has it’s own rules). If I assume magic obeys the basics, then Sciona used a trail of blood to breach the vault for her blood-portal (thus bypassing the Faraday cage (the blood trail works like a wire… yep, she would have need A LOT of blood for a wire that long… wait, I don’t know where she started her blood-port from!?!)).
I get curious when folks propose mundane solutions to problems. In this case it is regarding how the tank i s to be deployed one mile under the ocean? Whilst we do have both submarines and armoured vehicle landing craft, I am unaware of any class of vessel which combines the two features.
Sure a tank can just be pushed of the side of a ship, on the surface, and it will get down this deep. But I am not sure if a pancake crew would be particularly useful.
Colliery to Maxim 11:
Everything is submersible at least once.
That said, submarine crew + mini-nukes would do way more damage than than just getting a tank in there.
Interesting otto-correct there. A corollary to your colliery: There is an old Russian proverb (often said by old Russians) ‘Every mushroom is edible. Some of them only once.’
Something like a JIM diving suit with a backpack nuke might be appropriate. Anything able to withstand the pressure to get down there is going to do a pretty good imitation of a tank once inside the standard atmospheric pressure in the vault. At least, for as long as the power and the air hold out.
Do you NOT watch Ben 10?
Never even heard of it. Which probably comes from not watching TV.
No TV? Sacrilege! Your penance it to say 10 ‘Hail Mary Tyler Moores’ and 5 ‘Our Father, who dost know best’.
Faraday cage would block standard transporter but not dimensional shift (folded-space transporter). It also wouldn’t block wormholes or anything based on them, like teraport.
+1
Although you could always unleash the Faraday on any intruders.
Well… That may almost be the full overkill… Just from the side that was Cooter. Now the question is does he regenerate?
And the answer is that, as he is not a toddler (who can regenerate fingertips), no. This is not a feature that normal* humans* possess.
* Term used loosely, in Coot’s case.
Who said Coot was still a human and not a piece of the regenerating construct will?
Me.
Sound effect wise, that’s pretty cool. I mean, you’re no John Workman, but he’s in a class by himself.
I dunno, my favorite for sound effects has to be Don Martin. Anyone who can make ‘DONKginginginging’ or ‘Schpladdle’ or even ‘THRUNCH’ so evocative…
But.. But.. But…
Coot was amusing!
A racist misogynistic sociopath, but an amusing racist misogynistic sociopath!
Please come back and amuse us some more…
*bits of brain dribble down from ceiling*
*eyeball rolls across floor, before exploding*
Translation: “Get back here, ya selfish bastard — I’m not yet done hurting you!”
I have to wonder about what role he SPECIFICALLY played in this series of (unfortunate) events. The damage done to the defense system was via a pre-programmed attack he had no control over. It did not involve any conscious action on his part. Sciona might just as well have sent a potioned-up cow into the room.
His role, was as expendable attack goat
Consider that if Sciona had managed to stay off the suspect list, security footage now records that the point man infiltrating the vault to steal magic artefacts, was an obnoxious monster hunter using magic. It would have at least diverted investigation for a while.
Unarmed dead cow meat would not trigger the defenses. This blood magic clearly operated as a counterattack, so needed the initial attack in order to work. Plus, with no functioning heart the blood would coagulate and be useless for such powerful blood magic. Further blood magic is well known to work better with human sacrifices.
Most importantly Sciona did not like him. She might have found him when making enquires at her local cow shop on how best to arm bovines. Coot would doubtless have been an expert on the related issue with bears.
*thinks*
If Harem can’t teleport outside Sydney’s shield, then does that mean, with really good timing, Dabbler’s railgun can’t teleport back to her lab either?
Probably, I doubt Dabbler’s technological transporter is better than Harem’s innate one.
Yea. And it is in either direction (Harem could not teleport into the shield when Sydney was being attacked by Shadow Boxer).
Although timing would be required if trying to intercept a dropped railgun, it would not be needed if Dabbler was inside the shield to start with. Provided of course that Halo had some means to incapacitate Dabbler in there (the tentacle does not work inside the shield and I doubt the PPO would either).
So a team-up of Maxima and Halo could acquire the US government some really advanced alien technology.
They would be wise to kill Dabbler though. Having someone, who has killed gods, as an enemy is not a good idea. Plus they would need to ensure that the Twilight Council did not find out. I suspect their alliance with humanity would be at an end if that were uncovered. It would show they could not trust Archon (or likely any other human organisation, given that they represented the best of the bunch).
Problem is: as soon as Sydney returns Mr Bubbly to his egg, the railgun would return to Dabbles’ lab
Good point. That’ll learn her that treachery does not pay!
It would allow them to study it though, until they had a need to lower the shield. Add Pixel and a weapons scientist to the team of conspirators.
Plus a big pile of comics, snacks, analytical equipment, a portaloo…
I think Dabbler might be a bit suspicious at some of the preparations.
I don’t really see many sound effects. I see explanation and narration
You do know what sound effects are, don’t you? o_O
So what does mild freezer burn and disintegration sound like ;)
Zorch
Zorl
Thuk, Thuk, Thuk, Thuk
Whoosh
Crack
Bludge
Blorsh, Blorsh, Blorsh, Blorsh, Blorsh, Blorsh, Blorsh
Skludge, Skludge
Shreee
BWABOOM!
Ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!
Oh Knight Who Until Recently Said Ni, I bring you the tallest tree in the forest, cut down with a Herring!
Excellent! If you also placed two shrubberies on either side of the path, one a little higher to create a tier effect, then you may pass.
I have a sneaky suspicion that DaveB may have tricked me into reciting an invocation to the dark elder gods!
Yours was probably the chorus.
It is okay. I avoided the invocation by skipping some words.
It is supposed to be Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ptang. Zoom-Boing. Z’ nourrwringmm.
Uh oh. I said it.
Oh, no, I said it again!
pretty sure that was Ekki-ekki-ekki-ptang-neewomp
This here? This isn’t the main vault, that’s why it’s empty, all the stuff stored here are through those doors
Doors, doors? Art thou referring to the big metal teddy bears?
:-D
What teddy bears? o_O
Go back one page and view the “boring…” first panel. Teddy Bears.
Oh, yes, them, but those aren’t teddies
If you were going for a Zork reference in that last paragraph, the correct spelling is “grue”.
Sorry, been playing the old Infocom games since childhood.
No, Groo is a more-stupid Conan clone
Given that Conan was always portrayed as being smart (enough to rule his own kingdom and outwit powerful magic using opponents) that description covers the range from ‘really dumb through to pretty smart’.
I only have the card game (adapted from the comic) to go by. But from that I would assume ‘really dumb’ but with additional characteristics of ‘incredibly destructive’ and ‘destruction magnet’ (i.e. he causes damage directly, like in bar-brawls, but also attracts danger, such as marauding forces).
That’s why said ‘more-stupid’, probably shoulda added a ‘than’ in there (but not where you think :P)
No, Groo is a more-stupid Conthanan clone
No, not there either :P
Although, those in the know know that Conan the barbarian is inferior to Cohen the barbarian.
Farenotsowell, Coot; you were generally unpleasant to look at. May you rest in no fewer than 37,489 pieces.
Lol (inside my head*)
* I visualise it so well it was almost indistinguishable from reality. But with the very necessary benefit of not waking up the four kitties sleeping on my lap.
I wonder if the Freeze ray was Fully functional would the tentacle explosives had time to kick in or would he have just shattered?
I was thrilled at your Groo reference. I have named all my frpg characters Groo for over two decades. Thanks.
Groo?
The dumbest barbarian to ever disprove Darwin every morning by just waking up.
Groo the Wanderer
Wikipedia is incomplete! *gasp*
No ‘other media’ or ‘disambiguation’ mention of Grue the card game (based on the same).
I can recommend it though. A perfect pub game. Easy to learn (even for non-gamers), really fun, has enough luck in it that everyone has a chance of winning, yet has enough scope for skill and tactical play to make a difference.
It is your civic duty to improve wikipedia! To the Yorpmobile!…er…Yorputer!
I have corrected a couple of spelling errors and sentences which were incomprehensibly poorly worded. But I have avoided anything which would require setting up new links or pages. I do not like to do such things poorly, so would want to thoroughly research and learn the necessary coding.
Trouble is, as you may have noticed, I tend to go overboard on anything I do, and Wikipedia is just too massive a potential time-sink for me to risk doing that. I read an awful lot of items from it, so I would have a constant urge to correct any errors or poorly worded articles.
Which I simply must not risk, as I have things of substantial benefit to the world which need my attention much more.
Sergio Argones? (or however you spell his name) I have a couple of dozen or so of his Groo comics in a box in the back of some closet or other.
It’s Sergio Aragonés… you only left out an “a”, and the diacritical over the e. Close enough! ;^)
Sergio is probably one of those people who’ll answer to anything that comes reasonably close anyway.
You totally got the tentacle explosion from Protptype, didn’t you? Admit it! :D
Great seeing this BTW, it remains interesting.
I got the same feeling, I kinda wish they would do a new version of that game too.
Not the same people who ruined P2. They basically threw out all the plot-hooks from P1, installed the most clique survey-created ‘radical’ characters to take the original’s place, and tried to make the exact same game. P1 had so much possibility, and Radical Entertainment p___d on it all.
Sorry for the rant. This and Disney studios taking all creative control from Greg Weisman’s Gargoyles are hot-topic buttons for me.
Why I love Roswell Conspiracies: Myths and Legends. was a cartoon series made around the same time Greg Weisman managed to do the full series of. only 40 episodes, but lots of character development, continuity, tying up subplots, everything.
it made sure it ended as it should.
That tentacle explosion reminds me of prototype and the bio-bomb like so much
They are fighting a blood mage.
They have just encountered a magic vault, presumably full of magic artifacts and traps, that is covered in blood.
First, you slam the door shut and seal it with something blood proof (preferably before one of the vampires present goes in there).
Then, you arm a bunch of Roombas with web cams (only better) and (disintegrate-based) “power washers…”
In other news, the fact that the Council had this level of tech in the seventies is pretty impressive.
I was wondering when someone would bring that up (eighties by the way if you are working on the ‘last accessed date’, as that was 30 years ago).
Don’t forget that the Council includes members of various star-faring races. Some of their technomagic may have matured a million (or a billion) years ago. This vault was not built with human technology, so the decade of construction was not that significant, unless there has been breakthroughs in galactic technology during that time.
On the other paw though, they might have been mindful of the possibility of the defensive technology itself falling into the wrong hands. In which case your comment does still remain relevant as they will have wanted to limit the devices used to the ball-park local technology.
Some of the aliens are also fond of Earth technology. They find it cool in a ‘retro’ kind of way. Although, some of them are putting together a class action suit against Apple. They are saying that Apple’s new iPhone with facial recognition is biased against species that don’t have faces.
Huh, surprised there wasn’t one that threw kitchen sinks and salt shaker, if you’re going to build a well rounded defense system against all monsters you should do it right! Think of the ones weak to salt shaker!
Wait, did Sciona’s blame just rip-off that time bomb attack from [PROTOTYPE]?
*plan not blame, autoincorrect is screwy
why does everyone spell ‘autocorrupt’ incorrectly?
Some pre-Romero zombies actually were vulnerable to salt.
Now they are vulnerable to a slight breeze or being touched with a feather-duster.
*Tries to feel sympathy for coot*
*Fails miserably*
Did they…purposely pick the most unlikable person they could find, so they would feel no guilt? (And the audience wouldn’t)
Also, decent way to handle a hideously trapped room. Sacrificial pawn!
I’m not entirely sure the pawn was sacrificed so much as upgraded.
Upgraded into what? Modern ‘Art’? Worthy of an entry into the Tate? o_O
I’m still curious if he’ll do an Alucard-like regeneration from bloodpulp. Those walls were pretty covered, seems not enough for the attack shown. My guess is Sciona upgraded him with elder ancient vampire blood and Coot was exploded repeatedly until the system (or the blood magic) finally wore out.
Oh, I am sure the S-Team took great enjoyment in having Coot take point. If someone has to be live bait, who you gonna call?
But also, Coot is a most obnoxious monster hunter, which means he’ll be identifiable. Even if not previously regarded as much of a threat, he’ll be on the Council’s Most Unwanted watch list for his blogging, if nothing else. Plausibly how and why he was recruited.
Well, now this break in has him on the Vault’s security recordings.
So if Sciona had managed to stay on the “presumed dead” list this would have gone down as: “A well-known monster hunter somehow managed to gain access to bloody magic to infiltrate vault, and we are missing various chaos McGuffins… so…”
Onomatopoeias per page? You just need to look at the classics. This one is an old story that ran in Mad Magazine #20, for a long time I thought it was by Eisner, but it seems to be made by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood. Chris Samnee posted it on his blog: https://68.media.tumblr.com/e4f59f7a4b4c1f8f68ddfb0cc60721e7/tumblr_n02srkkDF21t056jfo6_1280.jpg
The Typhoon Explosive System looks like it still needs some work.
so for about the last 4 hours I’ve had this page open… refreshing it every now and again and wondering where the update is… only now realizing 2 very important things… one: Its Wednesday… two: I am terribly dense at times….
I have done something similar a couple of times. One of which it turned out the comic had been posted a day ahead of schedule by accident.
Can’t wait to see how this’ll turn out….!
I suspect well done, with crispy bits.
Well.
I didn’t like Cooter, but this is a pretty horrific way for him to die.
Yes, yes it was. But he was
I am so envious of Sciona’s solution for obnoxious people.
It may be best for me not to learn blood magic. I could see the country being spattered with exploded uncouth folks.
「Killer Queen」 has already touched those fibers.
Ha! Called it. The crystal turret was a weapon by itself.
And there’s a disintegration ray.
There was a comic named “Destroy” that was basically 30 pages of sound effects.