Grrl Power #621 – Egocentrap detector
There is no I in team, but there is a ME if you rearrange the letters.
Maxima and Sydney are talking about both sides of the same coin. Sydney’s just forgetting that teams can do stuff like split up and apply their specializations while not standing right next to each other. She may be getting a little too used to being the center of attention ever since joining up.
For those of you who don’t know who Achilles is (because he’s only been in a handful of pages since the start of the comic) well, you can probably guess what his power is. And it’s not coming up with a creative name. And it’s not that mealy invulnerability that a lot of so-called invulnerable heroes have. Achilles could take a bunker buster to the noggin and not notice if it weren’t for all the noise and collateral damage. He’d be the worlds best tank if the enemy strong man couldn’t just pick him up and throw him into the next zip code.
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It´s not stupid if it works – Archilles can be blown/thrown away. Sidney is technical helping (best kind of helping). On another Note with his hair it looks like She is sweeping for traps.
Have to second this. If any trap would throw or hold him, then the light hook can pull him back.
Bad pun, no biscuit.. plus Sydney is very right in doing what she is doing, if achilies gets stuck in a trap, while not hurting him, will suck up a lot of time… Sydney can just pull him back out…
The only thing missing is Achilles giving Sydney permission to do this with him. Without it, Maxima has a point. With permission, though, Maxima should have no problem with it. How can she not know if Sydney got that permission? And why would Syndey do this without permission?
Maybe he said mouth feel again. Sidney has a tendency to do be a “little” bit impulsive.
They are all standing pretty close together, how could she not hear it?
because she asked yesterday???
I forgot to point out that Sydney is just a recruit, while Achilles is a corporal. Since this is a military organization, there is no way she can get away with doing this to a superior without permission.
I’ve noticed that Achilles doesn’t have the most military of bearings in the past…
That would be one of the numerous reasons why Maxima is scheduling a training session for Sydney.
In order to gain the unique benefits of her powers they do kind of have to put up with her quirky behaviour. And can’t apply normal military discipline to her, given that she has all but broken down twice already.
After all Sydney may be their only way to counter some of Sciona’s magical and mental weapons.
Yet she has already suffered the extraordinary trauma of (possibly) being killed by Sciona.
So Maxima is very wise not to get too draconian about the rules and regs. Not when Sydney is not doing harm. In fact she has rapidly revealed two traps. Whereas Achilles had just been standing around doing nothing.
So bizarre and rule-breaking it may be. But it is effective.
Oh, and last but not least, Sydney has bypassed rank protocols once before. When Vehemence was beating the cr*p out of Maxima. Had Halo not violated the chain of command and given orders, Maxima would be dead.
So a really good reason not to get unduly concerned about protocol issues. But not disagreeing that your point is perfectly correct mind. Sydney does need to be taught how to military.
You seem to be arguing that Sydney is acting without permission, here, while I’m arguing that she probably obtained permission.
Also, you left a couple things out, regarding Sydney breaking protocol at the restaurant fight. When Maxima was about to take on Death-Toll/Nemesis, Sydney told her not to (page 244 /archive 1464, and especially the first panel of the page after that). And then Sydney proved to be right, which even in the military tends to earn some leeway.
Also, at the start of the fight with Vehemence, he told Maxima to listen to genre-savvy Sydney (page 251 /archive 1490) –and not only were the others were there to hear him say that (last panel of pg250), they were also there in the middle of the fight when Maxima told Sydney she was open to suggestions (last panels of page 269 /archive 1647). We can conclude Sydney was not breaking protocol as much as you’ve indicated, when she started getting others involved in her plan (making Dabbler jump-rope, but Dabbler is listed in the wiki cast-page as a civilian specialist, not in the military chain of command).
In which case you may wish to phrase your comments less ambiguously, as it can very reasonably be interpreted the way I took it. Especially as we saw no permission being given.
However, reexamining it in light of what you say, it is entirely possible that such was granted in between scenes. If that was done though why is Maxima querying what Sydney is doing? Had that conversation taken place Maxima should be aware, at least in general terms, what was going on.
Plus there would be no need to tell Sydney that they need to have a talk about teamwork. If Halo was acting with the corporal’s permission then any corrective action needs to be directed at him, not her.
Yes, my original post about Sydney and permission also asked the question about why Maxima wasn’t fully on-board with this trap-testing method. I can reiterate asking why Sydney would have acted without permission, given my other posts pointing out her knowledge of chain-of-command stuff (and I can add to that page 612 /archive 2804, with Master Sergent Anvil ordering her around only hours ago, relative to the current page). I guess we can only assume Sydney didn’t want to sound foolish if Achilles had said “no”, and so asked him privately.
I’m not sure if this next thing either supports or diminishes my case here (and I apologize for not recalling this earlier), but on page 336 /archive 1797 Sydney commits an impact upon Achilles, a superior, and is apparently not punished (on the next page) for having done that particular thing. It is almost as if everyone has generic permission to ignore Achilles’ rank. The punishment on page 337 is related to misbehaving while in uniform (they’re at lunch on page 336 so presumably not officially on duty).
The next page was the punishment. Although it is summed up as ‘horseplay’ it would include the whole incident.
A couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly Dave is not from a military background, so it is not ingrained in him just how badly striking a superior (in this case with the tentacle) would be taken. Under the wrong circumstances it could result in being executed, possibly on the spot!
But even when not at war it has a good chance of earning a dishonourable discharge. Or that and time in the stockade too!
Secondly this unit clearly does allow the members to impromptu spar with one another and probe each other’s powers. We saw Maxima authorise that with the rematch between Sydney and Math.
However we have also seen Math (a civilian specialist) fighting with Anvil (a sergeant).*
Whilst there are (very good arguments) to disallow such, due to the indiscipline and potential dangers, there are some good points too.
For instance it does allow them to test each other’s strength of character. For instance Sydney likes to tease but sometimes does not take this well. Loosing her rag at the ‘mouthfeel’ is likewise something that Achilles (knowingly or uncaringly) helped to provoke.
But finding out that she has a short fuse, now, rather than when in a life or death situation, is important for him (and others) to know. Plus, of course, it allows corrective action to be taken, in order to stamp out any antisocial behaviour.
Finally, of course, they need Halo far too much to be too strict. Loosing Sydney, and her unprecedented set of powers, to the private sector, because she got too fed up, could end up with Arc-SWAT loosing their next fight. Sydney has already shown that she can tip the balance in even the biggest of super fights.
So Peggy settling on PT, as punishment, is a good compromise, which allows discipline to be improved, yet without pushing things so far that Sydney wants to leave Archon.
* Significantly though doing in the common room, where they can be considered to be ‘off duty’, rather than in a public canteen, whilst in uniform. Still a no-no in the regular military mind, but, in the relaxed conditions of this unit, less of an issue.
In the context of your statement, yes, Sydney has Achilles’ permission & Max’s “go ahead” from in between scenes. But Sydney’s “normal” is highly unorthodox & Max could be asking “The hell you doing?” in a context more like “Why you doing it that way?”
Good point. Thanks!
Good points. Especially give the ‘asking for suggestions’ bit, which I had forgotten.
That said though there is still a leap between that and giving leeway to take command of the unit! Which is in effect what Sydney did. Hence, on the face of it, a breach of normal military protocol.
Not that this should be taken as criticism of her. To the contrary by that stage Sydney was aware that everybody else had been mentally compromised. In military legal terms that actually made her the most senior person in the chain of command. Simply because everyone else should be considered to have been unfit to command, due to the effects of the aggro aura.
However Sydney only had her own opinion to go upon, and did not seek the confirmation of a qualified medical officer to confirm that. So technically still breaking protocol. But, as a matter of practicality, that would not have been possible in the circumstances. So she did good.
Here’s a bit more, which I didn’t recall earlier. On page 272 /archive 1554 (last panel) corporal Harem is telling recruit Sydney to think of a way to beat the bad guy. Normally we should expect the higher rank to do that task, right? (“that’s why they get paid the big bucks”), but, anyway, it logically follows that Harem, at least, is perfectly willing to help Sydney implement a plan, if Sydney thinks of one.
A good leader will encourage anybody to make suggestions. Or even to act on them, under their own recognisance, when there is no time, or opportunity, to get amended orders.
It is just a matter of also having to keep a balance. There are some people (such as myself) who might offer a never-ending stream of suggestions. Which could get annoying, and/or simply not be well thought out. Not to mention running the risk of troops first reactions not to be an instant response to an order, but a delay to think over whether it is a good idea or not.
There are all too many circumstances where that could be fatal.
Thank you (and you are not the only one who could offer too-many suggestions!).
Setting aside temporary mental incompetency, normally Dabbler does actually outrank Sydney, by several grades. You should not mistake ‘civilian specialist’ with being ‘not in the chain of command due to being a civilian’. It is actually a military rank. Dabbler is part of the armed forces of the United States, must obey orders and is subject to military punishments if she fails to do so.
Likewise though she gets the perks associated with being in the military. Including those of her rank, which is above that of a private first class. Sydney, only being a recruit, is therefore junior to her.
And the unit mascot, if they have one, for that matter. ;-)
Okay, I think you are pulling a fast one there. Your link to “specialist” is a link to military specialists, while the cast wiki specifically states that Dabbler is a civilian specialist. I admit it might still be equivalent to some sort of military rank, given that you are correct in that Dabbler has had to obey some of Maxima’s orders (page 99 /archive 598 comes to mind). Perhaps, as an extraterrestrial visitor, it is impossible for Dabbler to serve in the US military in the same way as ordinary citizens (we could expect her to have other loyalties). Her contract with Archon might be worth seeing, just for the precise explanation of her position there!
Some time ago, when I googled ‘civilian specialist’ there appeared a wiki entry all about it, this time I saved time and just typed ‘specialist’. Picking out the details I cited above.
But, as you say, without reading sufficiently to check that it was the same thing as I recalled from before. The cursory glance made it seem correct.
So my bad! It was not what I thought it was. Thank you for calling me on it, as I would never want to spread misinformation.
Even worse trying to find the original piece yielded no results so clearly there can only be one conclusion …
I have slipped into another alternate Earth, where civilian specialist really is someone outside of the chain of military command!* Therefore I retract my totally incorrect assertion to the contrary!
Now, on to the important stuff. I missed my last bus into my nearest city, so I have no easy way to check what major differences there may be in this world. I need to know if chocolate exists here? Likewise shrimp? That one might seem trivial, but if they do not exist then people will get confused when I claim that tarantulas taste like them!
Ohh, ooh! Maybe they don’t exist either? Big hairy things, with eight eyes, eight legs, fangs and venom.
And if that describes you I need to exit this world fast!
* But, as you say Dabbler would still be required to take orders. However, on reflection, I think that would only in the same way that any employee of a company is.
Probably with some far more restrictive clauses in her contract than may be found in contracts in the private sector mind. I know that there would be things like non-disclosure agreements (or in the UK a requirement to sign and abide by the Official Secrets Act, so there may be something analogous in the US).
Tarantula venom is relatively harmless to humans. At least, relatively harmless to the humans of this world/universe.
A tarantula this size, yea…
*holds paws a tarantula’s width apart*
But not one big enough to drive a car!
tarantula venom can actually be as harmful to a human as any other venom, as some people have allergies that would make it (technically) more effective
They can also be dangerous for the infirm or babies. I am particularly mindful of the latter because, as a small pup, I kicked the bedding so that it was dangling off the bed. Making a nice inviting ramp for a tarantula to climb up, and get irritated by my wriggling.
Fortunately my mum came in just in time and rescued me.
It is worth noting that their fur is actually spine-like and has severe irritant properties. And I seem to recall some species can even shoot it a small distance. So, whilst they make tasty eating, in a survival situation, you do have to be very careful handling and preparing them.
Be sure to make sure you do not push against their fur, when handling them. And burn it all off very thoroughly. It is better to have rather crispy meat, than to risk getting poisoned. Even a mild poison can be a serious threat to life for someone fighting off starvation and suffering from exposure or other problems from being stuck in the wilderness.
“Her contract with Archon might be worth seeing, just for the precise explanation of her position there!”
The section on sexual harassment and fraternization would be especially interesting. And long. And detailed.
” It is actually a military rank.”
Yes. In the Navy, a Warrant Officer (the stages of Specialists half way between Commissioned ranks & non-commissioned ranks) operating within the scope of his Specialization outranks even a full Admiral…And technically can even override an order from the Commander-in-Chief!
Just so. I even know one who had precisely that power, in the UK armed forces. Mainly because he was in command of a nuclear armed unit, and was kept fully briefed on all the pertinent information that allowed him to make a ‘start world war III / don’t start WWII’ call.
And if he had local information, not yet in the possession of others, which changed the dynamics, he needed to be in a position to countermand a wrong call, no matter how senior the person giving it.
There is a Russian colonel who has been credibly reported as having had to do precisely that, during the Cold War. Their computer warning system had concluded that a preemptive strike had been launched, and recommended immediate launch of a counter-strike.
Which their standing orders were to comply with that. However because the Soviet Union did not give such lassitude to even their officers (note he was far senior to a warrant officer), his only option would have been to send a query up the chain of command. The reply for which could not make the round trip until after the counter attack had already been fired!
Fortunately he risked his career (and the possibility of his country being wiped out by a preemptive strike) and countermanded the standing orders. Otherwise this conversation would be carried out with tin-cans and a taught string between two improvised fallout bunkers.
That said though, as per my reply above, I believe I was incorrect in asserting that Dabbler would equate to a (military) specialist, given that her cast list page does stipulate civilian specialist.
Unless Archon rules stipulate that it is a military rank, perhaps equal to the one I linked above? We would have to get DaveB‘s call on that. Unless someone can find a suitable source, detailing the term, despite me failing to find such.
“…but Dabbler is listed in the wiki cast-page as a civilian specialist, not in the military chain of command…”
True enough, but if a civilian is going into a combat or hazard-zone, they do have to understand chain of command. Especially if the civilian is combat-ready in their own right, they have to know the difference between when to provide expert advice & when to follow orders.
Also, see the first panel of #127 /archive 755 –Sydney does know at least something about the military chain of command. I can also mention page 325 /archive 1753, in which Harem (a corporal) is assigned to teach Sydney military stances and salutes. And she’s been ordered about by Peggy (1st Lt), also, notably on the obstacle course (pg 399 /archive 2008). I really don’t think Sydney would have grabbed Achilles with the lighthook/SnakeBall without his permission.
Possibly so, given that Maxima is not seriously freaking out.
Technically Sydney is battering someone senior to her. If that was done without either express or implied permission,* then she could face a potential courts martial over doing that.
Which, in war time, could get her put in front of a firing squad and shot. Even in peace time that would earn time in a stockade and a dishonourable discharge.
But not an issue in this unit, under these circumstances.
* This latter is the more likely I feel. Sydney has seen other members of the unit using Achilles as a missile, in combat, so has taken that this is acceptable protocol. Which she is right about, generally speaking. She has just stretched that principle a wee bit too far to sit comfortably with Maxima.
Also pointing out Max is more loose on military protocol than Peggy. And hard to tell but it has felt like Max goes out of uniform more often than the rest. Biker jacket in lieu of the field jacket as Sydney is wearing.
Maxima had to scramble in whatever she was wearing. Whereas the “A” team were given five minutes to ready themselves. Vital preparation time to put on Kevlar +, for anybody who is not invulnerable or possessed of golden force-field covered skin.
But, yea, the unit specifically does not mandate that uniforms have to be worn when on duty. Despite Harem having a special order to the contrary.
Mainly because they are ‘on call’ 24/7 365.25 days of the year. So it would be onerous to not be able to have some casual elements when being military becomes burdensome.
Super heroes will likely feel that burden more than most, given that they have to respond to every major emergency and atrocity going.
Yes! The first time (besides myself) that I’ve seen someone actually remember that extra 0.25 day in the year! Yes! Yes! Yes! Admittedly, I don’t include it very often, but I’ve been including it for quite a few years.
No matter what, Yorp, I got your back.
Daaaww!
As I pointed out on previous pages, Sydney did not bypass the Chain of Command. The military understands and respects special situations wherein a specialist may take command due to nature of the specialty and it directly affecting the immediate situation. It is a case of mission success being imperative.
Indeed. But Sydney only complied with that by common sense and luck. Here we can see that she really does need to be trained. Because, the next time she decides that she knows better than her superiors, Sydney may not have the excuse that they are all mentally unfit to command.
Exactly. If a trap were to trap Achilles, the tentacle may yet be a route to freedom. Maxima’s logic is usually sound, but on this rare occasion she should shut her trap.
Right. Sure Achilles can walk into a trap by himself, but Sydney’s the only one who can pull him free without risk.
True but the normal method of implementation would be for her to wrape the light hook around his waist like a safetly line and for him to walk as normal. He does not seam to be doing much complaining though about her implementation. He might be finding the whole thing amusing.
To be fair, we might be seeing what happened after Achilles tripped from not having previously practiced synching stride with Sydney and getting pushed/pulled off balance by the lighthook.
Also this way they can test the ceiling as well as the floor. Anyone who’d played D&D can tell you to never forget about the ceiling.
I fully expect this to be a “Make Maxima say” attempt.
Not only would “Booby Trap” be too obvious at this point, but Dabbler’s already got it marked…
Ahh, but what if Sydney has it on her list too? I know she had some duplicates with Dabbler, and will not have crossed it off her list, if so.
Just not feeling like tracking her card down, at the moment, to check what it had. My google-fu failed me yesterday, and I is sad!
*cries*
It isn’t every day that I get to use one of the Maxim’s of a Maximally Efficient Mercenary, Maxim “43. If it’s stupid and it works, it’s still stupid and you’re lucky.” Thank you Schlock. The light hook safety line.
Was about to add this, but you beat me to it.
Coincidentally, if you back the Kickstarter in the next 24 hours or so, you can get Maxim 43 on a t-shirt! Or one of several other great shirts, like the equally-applicable quote: Mad science means never stopping to ask ‘what’s the worst that could happen’.
It’s the best use of a mullet I’ve seem yet.
Ordinary people use brooms to sweep the floor. Cool people like Sydney use invunerable eighties hair instead.
Wouldn’t it have been smarter to just tie Light Hook around his waist like a rope tether and still let him walk down the hall?
Using him like a 10-ft pole from D&D feels a bit undignified.
The thing about the 10-ft pole is that it allows you to check everywhere, not just where you might step. You never know what’s going to trigger a trap and from where the danger will come.
Despite this looking stupid it’s actually a better way of sweeping for traps than Max believes. Assuming Achilles gave his permission.
Granted, the hallway could have triggers for people who might transport through unique means (flying would probably be the most obvious), but that still doesn’t exactly justify using him as a pole, other than for the amusement of all those involved.
Would again be practical for him to wear LH like a harness, then have Achilles direct how he wants to move if it’s not something other than walking. The thing with a pole is that it’s not sentient and is incapable of observing and examining. Having Achilles direct movement would be better since he can actually observe and handle stuff right there rather than being manipulated to poke and prod from a good safe distance back.
I think Achilles is used to undignified work like this after his long career as a punching bag. In fact being used as a broom may be new even to him.
Actually, I think Achilles actually likes indignant stuff like this…Especially if it looks amusing.
And if the ones using him as a tool are the beautifull women on this team that might be a nice bonus.
Can’t fall in a pit trap this was can he.
If it’s stupid and it works, it’s still stupid and you’re lucky. – Maxim 43
where cam i find these maxims?
They originate from here:
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-06-12
And a full list can be found here:
https://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
I might point out that the overall team at this location is due to enlarge pretty soon. Think about the time that this alpha team took to fix the bridge and then find this lair. Meanwhile, Peggy and the Osprey and delta team (see page #612 /archive #2804) should have been chugging away, getting closer and closer.
Also note that just because Achilles is setting off traps, that doesn’t mean the traps have become disabled (cannot activate again). Maxima’s group might or might not be able to disable them without collapsing these tunnels on themselves, so they have to work slowly, giving Peggy’s group even more time to arrive.
So far we haven’t seen Harem in this group, but whenever she puts in an appearance, she should be able to go fetch specialized trap-disabling tools. Setting off traps certainly identifies them, making it much easier to decide what is needed, to disable them.
Another thing to note: If this place is some sort of former military installation, the Defense Department should have plans of it somewhere, accessible by the Archon division. That would make it lots easier to identify and disable at least some of the traps! (Other traps, of course, might have been installed after ownership changed hands.)
“…Note with his hair it looks like She is sweeping for traps….”
Naw, that would be mine sweeping…But she might be mopping the floor with him.
Sydney is making sure that the invulnerable one doesn’t get thrown off. but she’s being a bit pedantic about it though ;)
That’s brilliant.
Is He Polish?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DesignatedPointMan
He he he.
And I got my wish about finding new power stunts for Achilles! Teamwork power stunts count.
Not quite what I had in mind, I must admit. Darned effective though!
Huh, last time I saw this trick was with a corpse dragged along by a flying broom. In games, I like to create undead for trap detection purposes.
And Halo is helping, by keeping his boots clear.
I always remember the old tale of a group of high-level D&D players who were given a module that was designed purely to eradicate high-level players who had grown too powerful, mainly with lethal traps – Tomb of Horrors, I think?
Anyway, in RP mode they worked out where the dungeon sat in relation to other towns and modules, split up & blitzed through a series of low-level quests that their characters could do with their eyes closed, and used the resulting rewards to buy up thousands of cattle and other farm animals. They RP’d a cattle drive back to the original dungeon, and stampeded the entire herd through the dungeon ahead of them. Cleared out most of the traps and not a few of the monsters, and left the dungeon ripe for the picking. I always wondered whether the DM wanted to applaud or scream…
Well. Better than one evil group that simply kidnapped all villagers from one place.
Human cattle are more reluctant than bovine cattle…harder to get stampeding. They move too slowly & they may be a bit more likely to miss a trap trigger than a bovine (two legs vs. four legs). You can set them on fire to speed them up but they don’t get very far before they just drop there, making more smoke screen then anything else. It’s also harder to get them in the direction you want, what with being in panic & everything.
The version I heard was a team of dwarves that decided to invest in a whole bunch of pickaxes and take the time (because they’re long-lived) to just tunnel around every door and other obstacle they encountered. I guess the module designers didn’t expect players to be methodical and patient, and the players didn’t mind making a Tomb of Horrors run so boring.
….
*flees for dear punning life*
…after reading twice looking for the joke and then realising what it is, I am now contracting the first team to stampede a fresh herd of cattle down the dawrven bypass tunnels with a special emphasis on finding Reltzik. It’s only fair.
*(quickly hides all proof of own terrible jokes posted online over the last two point five decades)*
When I started playing on computers, we had to pun in binary; and, sometimes we didn’t even have enough one’s.
One had a similar experience.
01101000 01100001 00100000 01101000 01100001 00100000 01101000 01100001
There’s supposed to be lava in the walls to prevent the mining idea alongside a random encounter table for the demons that fix the dungeon if the party lingers in one place for too long.Tomb of horrors is actually the most pickaxe proof dungeon of the old modules.
not the old versions
That sounds very much like ordinary Dwarf Fortress. The pickaxe team will feel entirely at home.
Protections were added to newer versions to deal with some of the exploits players used. Like ripping the ridiculously awesome doors off of their hinges and selling them.
Not quite sure I’d call them protections, more like modifications so that the unwinnable factor for the module kept getting higher. Like fixing it so that a particular cursed crown could no longer be taken from its room and used to later kill the demi-lich that built the place.
To get too-powerful characters out of the way, I used a dungeon I saw in a Dragon Magazine once…It’s called Nogard.
In a nutshell, the “Mary Sues & Marty Stu’s” in a campaign have just finished preparing for the toughest dungeon they’ve ever heard of. The DM can feasibly place it anywhere & anywhen they want, but it works best if some of the leadup to it includes the information/rumors that “All who have gone there have never returned.” Even consulting with the gods reveals no other info except where to find the entrance.
The DM can game-play however much he wishes during the journey. Once the party has arrived, as fully equipped as they think they can get away with, they find that the entrance is nothing more than a portal of some kind, but no amount of scrying or study will reveal where it leads.
They enter. There’s nothing visible except white. The ground is white, the air is transparent as normal & it’s breathable, but the horizon is white, the sky is white, there’s nobody else around & there’s no terrain features of any kind. Just flat, white expanse of ground & white sky. It’s an empty dimension. And that’s it. There’s no escape.
The Supreme Chief Gods of All Pantheons cooperated to create this plane of existence specifically so that no matter what kind of power that characters can earn, the gods have a safe place to put them so that they can’t upset the cosmic balance. No mortals can be allowed to usurp their power.
There’s nothing for the characters to do. There’s nothing there that can challenge them in any way. They have been removed from all campaign worlds, even those that aren’t AD&D. Eventually, the characters die of sheer boredom. Time to roll up new characters.
:D
Dimension Door.
Heh. Its name is a misnomer. That spell only allows a character to go a set distance in a given direction, quite a limited distance in fact. So even if they used it they would still be trapped in that dimension.
They would be able to use it mind, as there was mention of ground and horizon. So even though it is featureless there are the basic elements such as distance and a survivable environment. In the ‘this will not immediately kill you’ sense, as opposed to the ‘has necessary stuff to sustain life indefinitely’.
However even if you had stipulated a spell capable of traversing to other planes and dimensions, the set up that MidnightDStroyerstipulated would flat prevent that from working.
Unless the character in question happened to be a deity of greater rank than the ones who created that trap. But … well if the DM had allowed that in the first place then he really should have created a more powerful supreme deity to counter the problem.
However there is a different solution available to creative players.
They have just been given a private dimension, of their own, to do with as they will. So if you favour characters (like myself) who can create matter out of nothing, they can go about turning that nothingness into a rich and interesting environment, of their own design!
Not only that but there would still be a powerful draw, to keep interest going in the campaign (as if being able to exercise your artistic skills on a global scale was not enough!). Namely that sooner or later others will be coming through that portal!
Very powerful, very well equipped individuals, looking to pillage and loot.
Bring it on!
Lets hope for some pretty females amongst them. Otherwise eternity could get rather boring, with unchanging company. Plus I have a world to populate!
You could just go with the traditional ‘Rocks fall everyone dies.’ Or, the gods are angry and hit you with a lightning bolts. You made your saving throw? Ok half damage, one thousand HP. Or all the characters have simultaneous heart attacks and die.
If it worked for you, good. But what’s the point of tricking them into a trap you intend to be boring and inescapable, instead of just saying you want to end the campaign?
Also, if they’re so high level why can’t they just dimension shift out? Or maybe travel astrally. But I assume for the sake of argument this is a special plane where no dimensional travel is possible.
Probably with the emphasis on “ripe”. For the party’s sake, I hope that they all had good boots… and nose-plugs…
^_^
One of my groups did this on a smaller scale with a bag of tricks.
“Hey, that looks like it might be trapped.”
:lion: *ZOT*
“Yep, trapped. I wonder if it resets?”
:lion: *ZOT*
“Yep, resets.”
We made the druid cry. (And I mean the player.)
You warm my chaotic-evil heart with your story.
Hey, it’s all good with Chaotic-Neutrals as well.
I co-write a rational Naruto quest over on https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/marked-for-death-a-rational-naruto-quest.24481/#post-4925222 My co-author wrote an update where the characters were running / playing in a D&D-style RPG with, among others, Nara Shikaku. (Shikaku is memetically recognized as the smartest man in the setting.) He looked at the overland map and said “Okay, the Volcanic Dungeon of Volcanically Evil Doom is here and the Sapphire River is there? No problem. We build a canal and divert the river into the dungeon, flooding everything. The water hits the lava and steam-cleans the whole place. What’s the next adventure?”
:-D
Crying shame to burn and melt all the lovely magical items and object d’art mind. I prefer to loot those before using techniques of mass destruction. Where possible.
If you aren’t likely to get the loot (or the character is not bothered about such) then cool …
umm … no … scortchio.
But it IS best way to solve the dungeon in case the artifact you are after is indestructible …
Love the light and shade in this DaveB. In every panel!
Sydney has a point: with Les tethered, she can pull him back if he gets into somewhere he can’t get himself out of, like say the bottom of a collapsed restaurant wall
Achilles: Ok, Sydney, this pit goes for at least another 40 feet. Can you pull me up now? It’s a good trap for any non-flyers, with these really slick sides.
Yeah, was actually thinking almost that exact thing with a very deep shaft with slick walls
They could have done that without Sydney wielding Achilles like a 10 ft pole!
That was the part Maxima is annoyed about.
Achilles’ power would only be a negative to his own self-interest if he were also a wishful physical masochist.
I also presume that Achilles doesn’t feel pain, as part of his power. He can feel anything else normally, I would guess, but nothing would trigger his pain receptors in particular. So no, I don’t think he’s a wishful physical masochist…There wouldn’t be any humor in that. He’d be screaming “Ow! Ow! Ow!” instead of “Who-hoo-hoo-hoo!”
There is an ‘i’ in team. It’s in the A hole.
Best answer to this cliche I ever heard:
boss: “There is no ‘I’ in team!”
employee: “There is no ‘U’ in reality.”
There is no I in team, but there is an I in pie… like a meat pie…
Brilliant – that’s going on my list of ‘obnoxious things to try *not* to say unless someone really deserves it’.
Usually, the “I” IS the A-Hole of a team…
;)
Well, in case one of the traps includes a classic “Bottomless Pit” (my favourite pit is still the mashup of all the classics into the “Reverse Gravity Waterfilled With A Giant Snake”-Pit, Sydney’s plan is sound since she can rope him in quickly… if anything’s sound with Sydney :-)
my favorite trap is the completely still and clear underground lake with a chest at the “bottom” of the lake. The water is actually superheated, and as soon as the surface is broken, it instantly boils, scalding everyone within the room. Also the chest that is at the bottom of the lake is actually in an alcove in the cieling, and if you step on the wrong trigger… it opens, spilling the contents of the chest into the water.
Would that be from Grimtooth?
Nope. It may have been among the trap submissions that was considered for one book or another, but nothing like that was published.
With the amount of random shakes the average… anywhere often goes through, wouldn’t an entire superheated lake not only take a prohibitive amount of energy to keep heated, but also go off prematurely all the goddamn time, thereby scalding the legitimate/allied visitors who need to travel through it?
But with a random shake you might get banana or lime flavour. So worth the risk.
If the trap turns out to be a PARALYSIS FIELD, then Sydney’s plan is clearly superior since she can just pull him out easily.
That’s assuming that it would affect him, which it probably wouldn’t.
A weighted net could prove somewhat troublesome though.
For those just tuning in, it’s worth noting that on a scale where all power and abilities are rated one to five, Achilles’ invulnerability is rated six.
I remember one strip where he said he saved the world by drinking a vial of ebola.
An interesting note is that a few different superpower rating systems I read do this deliberately, and with solid reason (for the setting). The normal 1 to 5 scale has a strict, explicit definition for each point along said scale, but because these are physics-defying otherworldly crazypowers we’re talking about, ‘6’ is used for “we don’t have a scale for this. We *can’t* fully test this ability, or otherwise have any idea how it works.”
6 is the ‘here there be dragons’ of superpower ratings. As such, Achilles’ invulnerability would be less “OFF DA CHARTS!” (though it is also that) and more “we can’t properly measure/define this, it’s beyond our current understanding of supernormal abilities. It gets the ‘we don’t know’ rating.”
Which is, I know, before eighty people point it out to me, the phlegmatic, Science-y version of ‘OFF DA CHARTS’. Sue a girl for enjoying the more methodic reasoning :P
Actually, Achilles ability really goes to “11”.
:-D
Nice cultural reference.
Yurei put Achilles’s power in very expressive terms. As you mentioned a scale that goes to 10 (albeit just culturally), I should point out that this comic rates individual powers on a scale of 0 to 5. With, as perfectly correctly stated, Achilles breaking the mould.
However the character’s overall rating, compared to other supers in general, is on a scale of 0 to 5.
Which is where Achilles’s true weakness is exposed. His lack of other powers (even his super strength is just a side effect of not being able to be strained or harmed if he overexerts himself) and not having any significant weaponry, or other strong martial skills, and similar lack of other versatile abilities gives him a pretty low ranking.
On that scale he is only a five star hero. Embarrassingly close to Peggy* (given that she has no super powers at all) on her three stars.
* I ignore Math from such comparisons, as his mystical martial arts skills are on a par with powerful supers.
Dammit! Rather an important typo above!
“However the character’s overall rating, compared to other supers in general, is on a scale of 0 to 5”
should read:
“However the character’s overall rating, compared to other supers in general, is on a scale of 0 to 10”
Yep. In this setting, the Hulk may start with a strength level of 5 (immediately after transformation), but the madder he gets, the stronger he gets. Even facing the likes of Superman (Marvel & DC have done a couple of cross-overs a couple of decades ago) & any of the cosmic-level entities he’s ever faced, when it’s a contest of brute force, there’s been nobody & nothing that has been able to find any kind of upper limit to Hulk’s strength. They either have to find some other way to quiet him down (Galactus could simply turn Hulk into pile of primitive protoplasm with a mere glance, for example) or they simply lose the fight.
Would this not be the case for a lot of people with invulnerability of some sort?
You can’t often test (ethically/if you want to keep the super) if they’re invulnerable to a certain thing when they would immediately be splattered if the answer turns out to be “no”.
I imagine that the in-universe ratings (if there are in fact in-universe ratings and it’s not just a tool the author uses to show how powerful a certain character is to the audience) are mostly a result of so called “unplanned tests” the way that some of SpaceX’s craft go through “rapid unplanned disassembly”.
With other words: “He got hit by shit in the line of duty and he’s still around, so his invulnerability is AT LEAST this good.” Maybe his rating used to be a lot lower and they kept upgrading it as shit happened to him and he didn’t die from it?
Well, it works. And I understand just pushing the ground with the light hook would not trigger traps designed to detect living material.
A word of warning though: if there are such specific detectors, there might be somewhere a trap that only trigger at the second person passing through. A trap that does not need to be turned off ever if only one person is ever supposed to take this path can be pretty convenient.
What would happen if she just used the lighthook to feel ahead and trigger things? Can it be damaged, does she get feedback (other than force)?
Have they not actually measured how much force she can output with it by the way?
(It didn’t seem to phase her when it was smashed along with Achilles just now)
She can lift 15 tons, going beyond that she cant budge it and in fact can be dragged by it if she doesnt disengage the orb as we saw when she tried to tie up vehemence. As far as feedback goes, It looks like thats a no as it hasnt really been tried until now.
16, not 15.
Her lighthook’s current limit is 16 tons.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2023
On the orb skill tree (pg 181 /archive 1166) the pink orb associated with the lighthook has 3 subtrees lit. Assuming one of them relates to the strength of the lighthook (“SnakeBall”? see my comment a little farther down), it can be enhanced at least twice, and possibly up to 4 times.
I should also say that I had not paid close attention to that part of the skill-tree before, and now I’m wondering what other modes of operation it might have, which Sydney hasn’t noticed yet. Generally speaking, the most important thing about the skill tree is that it revealed various numbers of things already actively associated with each orb. The list of things that Sydney knows about is rather less than that total, which means serious further experimentation is in order, just to find out the full already-existing extent of the abilities the orbs allow her to use.
Some of the enhancements might be:
The end of it can be split to allow a better, more stable grip without having to wrap around an object.
The end of it might be able to manifest with several small endings, to provide for fine-tuned work.
Even though we don’t yet know for sure what her limit is on its full length, but it might be able to extend further.
Then of course, it’s strength capacity might increase.
Of course, this doesn’t include any new enhancements that would work through the Link to the other orbs though. The Lighthook is already linked to the Green Orb (makes air), but that might be either a way to spray some kind of air-spray out from the end of the Lighthook, or it may be linking the Lighthook to a yet-unknown ability (making other types of gasses?) of the Green Orb.
Sorry, I am not seeing any active link between the lighthook and another orb. In the tree on page 181 /archive 1166, the only active link between two orbs is between the blue FlyBall and the red FireBall (PPO). All other between-orb links are merely potential.
On another comment-page I suggested that maybe the connection allows both balls to be used when only one is held, so to test that notion, Sydney should hold the FireBall and see if she can fly. I’m aware that others have made other suggestions for what that active node allows; various notions need to be tested until the actual feature is discovered. But that’s basically a one-node version of what I wrote in my other comment above, regarding finding out the full already-existing extent of the abilities the orbs allow Sydney to use.
Or it may simply manifest extra tentacles. Perhaps each increase being an extra tentacle.
And one of the skills might allow Sydney to summon the guy hanging out in their common room, last seen wearing a trench coat and watching TV food shows.
For reasons.
Sydney is going to get bored of that pillow sooner or later!
Check out the very first few pages of the story. There are a couple of male characters in it who have not yet been seen elsewhere in the story, which is actually a flashback across several months, relative to those first few pages. Maybe one of those dudes is Sydney’s boyfriend.
Kopykraut is her boyfriend?
Tricky, but with a bit of luck I can knock his crown off.
I might have known you (or someone) would go with the wrong interpretation of what I said. I will admit I neglected to remember that there was actually only one page showing the males I was talking about (page 3 /archive 57) –hey, I just noticed that on page 4 Sydney is referred-to as a Corporal!
Anyway, neither of the males on page 3 is Joel (co-proprietor of comic shop), or Tony (possible romantic interest, per page 18 /archive 153), or Leon (possible romantic interest per page 190 /archive 1206). Even with the less-skilled artwork, it is obvious those two guys on page 3 are other persons, because their hair-color is too light, compared to Joel and Tony and Leon.
Note I only said “maybe” one of the two is Sydney’s boyfriend. We know she had some sort of social life before joining Archon (see 2nd panel of page 293 /archive 1628), and we know that a few months prior to page 3 she didn’t have a boyfriend (hinted on page 342 /archive 1816, but confirmed on page 434 /archive 2153). There’s still lots of time between the present portion of the story, and page 3, for that status to change.
Some traps may only trigger on Humans – Some could be magic. The hentorb … the lighthook could therefore overlook some traps.
That is true!
There is a tool called a “snake”. Maybe a satisfactory alternate name for the lighthook is “SnakeBall”. I’m only suggesting this because Sydney (or readers in comments) has called some of the others “CommBall” and “FlyBall” and “AirBall”. Two others, the shield and the PPO, could be called “WallBall” and “FireBall”, respectively. We would have a consistent naming scheme! The last is still unknown at this writing.
I think we here on this forum call it “hentorb” or “molestorb” more than it’s actual name.
If you rearrange the letters in team you can also get MEAT, MATE, META and TAME.
And AT ‘EM if you don’t mind spaces and punctuation.
There is only “me” in team.
At least Achilles is good at playing his part in the T-E-A-M…He makes a damm-good M-E-A-T shield.
I really cant tell if achilles is bored, annoyed, or just being casual by his facial expressio.
Probably not annoyed since he have been doing this kind of thing since the eighties. He should be used to it by now.
Also: at least this way he doesn’t have to walk. He also doesn’t want to have to be dug out again afterwards, either.
Also… hey, lighthook. Pretty neat. Probably has all sorts of uses.
I read his look as ‘I don’t mind, but we could be doing this with me right side up just as easily’
He might be able to spot foot-plates & trip-wires as triggers this way…
“Hey Sydney, tap me on the floor here.”
;)
Pray that Sydney won’t do anything to get Maxima really PO’d at her…..!
If she hasn’t done anything to do that by now…
I suspect it’s only a matter of time.
She already did when they first met.
Hippie.
Fortunately, Sydney is adorable, which is a defense against Maxima being PO’ed.
Also let’s see if this gets Sydney court martialed….
It won’t. There’s no cause for a court martial here.
She’s not doing anything illegal.
She’s not disobeying a direct order.
She has not lied.
And even though Achilles is of higher rank, there’s nothing she can do to injure him.
I agree, due to the unique circumstances of the unit (Sydney has observed that Achilles is used as a projectile weapon, in combat, by other members of the unit, so could infer that this is an acceptable variant).
However, in a regular unit, slamming an NCO around (regardless of whether it caused physical injury or not) would probably fall foul of the courts martial rules.
For brevity I only cite the start of the relevant entry in the Manual Courts Martial
It is important to note that this falls under the category of insubordination, even though it includes the striking. So it is the former that is the offence, whereas the latter is just one way of expressing that.
Mind you, despite me agreeing with you, were Maxima less tolerant she could choose to invoke this, given that this is actually the second time that Sydney has been insubordinate to this very NCO. Worse that occurred in the canteen with various witnesses. And in that instance was unequivocally insubordination.
Not that Sydney had been fully trained at that point. However ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’.
Unless, of course, as has been suggested by others, that Sydney had permission to use Achilles as a trap detector, and it is just the undignified way she used his head for tapping that Maxima was objecting to.
But even without that I would stand by the implied permission, through witnessing others doing something similar, in a previous fight.
Very good points made btw Yorp (especially about how it would be different in a regular unit, at least from a legal standard – I don’t have any idea what goes on in a REAL military unit though since I’m not military), although like you said, there’s also the fact that Achilles is okay with it. He’s outright said he’s okay with it, due to his utter and complete invulnerability to all physical harm. :)
As an aside, I should mention that, by that reasoning (and it’s good reasoning honestly), it could be argued that Maxima (throwing Dabbler through a wall), Harem (hitting Math with a pool stick), and Anvil (attacking Math also) would have been subject to court martial also :) The fact that so many of the people bearing the brunt of the damage are either invulnerable or highly resistant to damage and simply not pressing charges really helps to avoid a court martial :)
Yea, the yard stick changes when you have a unit with both super powers and a very relaxed culture.
GRRR!
I swear that I moved the reply from yours to Pander’s comment. The need for harm not being relevant to the points I was making.
I love how nonchalantly Achilles is taking all this. He really is one to just roll with it all, isn’t he?
Yeah, I love the “Ho hum, another day at the office” look he has on his face. Did it really never occur to him that Sydney’s method was completely unnecessary or did he actually think of that but went “Meh, whatever”?
I suspect most of his days are “Meh, whatever”. That probably happens when you’re invulnerable.
He’s probably annoyed that he doesn’t have any marshmallows to snack on…
I’m sitting in camp: this is less effort than walking, so yesplz
(it’s what I’d do!)
Let’s face it…Concepts like “assault & battery” or “physical abuse” have absolutely no meaning to Achilles. With his general attitude, I don’t even think “shame” or “embarrassment” register with him at all.
:D
At this point, I think that Akilles is happy with this. The usual walk through is boring.
I’m not sure this quite qualifies as detecting traps “like an elf”. I’ve never seen an elf use telekinesis to drag the fighter through all the traps before… though I’ve occasionally seen a wizard drag them out of the traps afterwards.
This is similar to the Trollish Mine Detector tactic is used in some D&D games. I played an intelligent troll (Str: 20, Dex: 8, Con: 25, Int: 4, Wis:8, Chr: 4) who would search for traps in a similar way. I should have had a rope around the waist to be able to dragged back by the rest of the party when things went wrong.
Bad guy: This tower is mine! Get the *thuck* away!
Thuck being the sound of an arrow landing pointy-side first into a fleshy target, like my troll.
I’d bet that your Troll would be the first to lay claim to the first Ring of Fire Resistance that the party finds, huh?
;)
It is however very much a nod toward a comic called Nodwick. Where they used their henchman (and duct tape) to set off traps. The duct tape (which was magical) was there to put him back together again when things got messy.
Thats how Binwin Bronzebottom detects traps
Achilles is doing what he does best again. At this point in his career as a shield, test dummy, mr fanservice, blunt weapon, etc… he must be wise enough to bring several changes of clothes in case he is subjected to something like being dropped into a firepit or targeted by a disintegrator ray. And Dabbler is not allowed to carry said extra clothes as she might “accidentaly” lose them.
Congratulations on winning the first place on the Top Web Comics list mr Barak.
Does he still interact with forces normally? If you used him as a shield, would the blow propagate through him?
He stopped a sword his eyeball, so I’m gonna go with yes.
A strong enough impact can knock him down or send him flying, so there has to be a physical interaction for that. His ability to resist knockback would depend on how well he’s braced for it with his strength + traction vs. force of impact. Achilles is notably stronger than a normal human, but that’s more a function of his invulnerability than anything else. He’s not in the same strength range of Hiro or Maxima, certainly, but I would bet that he might be about as two or three of Harem’s bodies merged together (Harem’s maximum strength when fully merged is 16 times stronger than a normal human of her build & physique).
Hand over the Yorpie Snax, you have lost your bet!
We actually have precise figures on both their strengths. Achilles barely qualifies as having super strength, as his is only 50% above average. Whereas even dismissing a single body Harem is boosted by 100% of her normal strength!
Granted guys are somewhat stronger than girls (on average), so that would narrow the gap. Bringing his 150% closer to harems 200% (talking totals now, rather than the increased percentage). However when upping that by dismissing Harem’s second body, she goes to 400% normal strength. So Achilles would be totally overwhelmed by her at that point!
We used to call this, “Bowling for Traps”. Use when the GM is disinclined to appreciate a group being stealthy, or the group, itself, is disinclined towards stealth.
I had to totally redux golems and constructs for this exact reason. Me being the smart one and much of the groups I had been playing in being so disinclined to the safe approach, I had to redo the entire tables and such to even include tiny and even disposable constructs. Materials vs size vs types of constructs. You can in fact create small constructs with the express purpose of walking down halls to trigger such traps for cheap.
If I was GMing, I’d probably just construct mathematical functions for all things like that.
Golems make the best draft animals. 24/7 service. No panicking. Darn tough.
The second best golem we ever had was created as a horse-figure. The first best was shaped as a wagon-figure.
I had a Combat Mage character (essentially, a Fighter-Mage) who could Stone Shape some of the surrounding wall.floor material into a stone column that would be slightly less tall than the width of the corridor…Then roll it down the hallway.
Okay. THAT is an excellent use of Stone Shape, providing the trap doesn’t send it back at you at speed.
Given the last tussle with one of Sci’s bases, anyone wonder just how many sets of clothes they’ve brought for this little excursion? If their is anything left of Achilles clothes in the next 50ft or so, I’ll be surprised.
A convenient exuse for fanservice. Not that you realy need a exuse for fanservice of course.
BAH! Self-mending clothing is within the realm of possibility in this comic.
Failing that we should expect emergency clothing repair.
By clothing ninjas of course.
I was not expecting that. Even Sydney, who generally is ready for such a situation, wasn’t expecting it. I dare say nobody was expecting it.
His private business keeps him busy, so he probably has to schedule ahead of time, so Archon probably can’t be expecting any kind of emergency” repair service. I’d bet that Archon ordered extra uniforms on military allowance for him though.
Oh Iron Cloth would be much too important an asset to risk being sent out into a combat on such a trivial matter.
Ninjas though are expendable. ;-)
Present company excepted!
Yes but do we realy want that anyway?
Who says there is no I in team ? See this for example: https://theozone.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IinTeam.jpg
Curious, does ARC know about how silly invulnerable he is?
Do they know that he’s invulnerable and just really tanky? It’s one thing for the author to know it, and quite another for the characters to assume it when they can’t really run tests of “okay, but will THIS kill you?! No? Okay, let’s try something that’s more likely to actually murder you.”
Some supersettings play with the idea that many invulnerable type supers have some kind of flaw, defect, imperfection or approach that plain old “untouchable” doesn’t cover (like needing to breathe, poison gas, mental effects), and they spend their entire lives thinking that they’re Achilles style invulnerable until they run into something they’re not invulnerable to and immediate die, a lot.
Most things that people will be tossing at them will be things that would vaporize anyone that wasn’t invulnerable, after all, and when the portal-cut projectiles suddenly work where nothing else did you both find that you’re not immune to portal-cuts, but also that you are now bisected and you need your blood as much as anyone else.
If they haven’t tried the Schyte of Totes Not Elune on Achilles and they’re chasing Sciona, is it not extremely risky to assume that Achilles will be invulnerable to it, since they don’t have the author superknowledge that he is, and likely realize that weapons that tear holes in space tend to ignore whether something durable happens to be in that space?
And not just really tanky*
He is Max level invulnerable, I don’t think they have anything “Better” to test with…
This also sits firmly in the What happens when 1 Harem dies… Good to know, fundamentally a bad idea…
No, he is a step up from Maxi level invulnerable
Maxi can still get hurt, she was hurt twice from two different people during the Restaurant Rumble: Kevin and Boomerilla (most people forget that her bolo-bombs hurt Maxi)
Not only that, but Achilles has not only saved the world by drinking a vial of Ebola, but Max has said that Achilles has remained unblemished from forces that would destroy matter down to sub-atomic levels.
Essentially, the lowest potential “murder risk” they can use for a test is by putting him in field battle…Anything that could manage to kill Achilles is best as “someone that they can afford to arrest” afterwards. This sort of leaves out Archon themselves from trying to test his limits any more.
Hmmm…Now that I think of it, we haven’t heard yet if Achilles can survive an attack that can alter the fundamental aspect of matter & energy on the quantum level. Well, if he can, than we might be able to re-name his power as “Quantum Anchor.” He’s is firmly “anchored” in existence even on the “quantum” level.
Geez, if the universe eventually collapses back into a singularity, Achilles would still be there watch the universe get swept up so he can turn out the light…
But if the universe ends because expansion leaves so much space that nothing has enough gravity to pull stuff together ever again, he’s going to be very, very lonely for a very, very long time…
Either way, it’s sounds pretty sad.
He can opt to hop to another universe, when this one gets too boring. He just needs to prioritise finding and keeping a suitable asset, for use when that time comes.
He & ARC are confident enough in his toughness that he will willingly block a sword point with his eye, without blinking, and that they will use him as a max-blast-proof sandbag (remember the press conference? I think his only response was “whee!”).
It’s a safe bet that they have tested him extensively at this point, including magical damage courtesy of ARC-Light, -Dark and Dabbler. Remember, they don’t even have to try to kill him to see if he is vulnerable to something, unless you get up to the level of nuclear detonations and being chucked in the sun.
I’m actually glad that Sydney has a hold on him, as I would be more worried about what would happen if he can’t breath/drink/eat for extended periods of time, such as being entombed in concrete. Unless he’s been shown to also not have those weaknesses?
The who’s who of him says they have tested that. We know he’s just as invulnerable on the inside (eating glass), immune to biological/virile vectors, radiation of all stripes, heat, cold, asphyxyation, hard vacuum, etc. etc.
So little things like getting buried in lava are nothing.
The only thing to wonder so far is if there’s a specific bit of magic, or if phychological harm can be done to him. For instance, would the sensory depravation and isolation from being buried in lava for a few decades ‘harm’ his psyche? Or would he come out being all “What took you so long?”
Immune to VIRILE vectors? So he’s immune to masculine seduction techniques as well?
Wow, That’s oddly… specific. ;)
Lol.
Achilles doesn’t need to eat, drink or breathe. He may feel hunger, but he’ll never starve. He eats purely for the flavor & uh…texture…of the food though. He can survive in airlessness, but he breathes by mere force of habit, because he still needed to before his power manifested. Achilles still has human habits but he no longer has any human needs.
I was thinking that you more or less had to try nuclear detonations and portal cuts and stuff like that by this point.
You can test a portal cut without risking killing him, but it’s hard to test if a nuclear detonation or particle beam would kill him without risking actually killing him if you are wrong.
He has shrugged off attacks that would destroy matter on the subatomic level.
Achilles can’t be poisoned, suffocated, starved, irradiated, crushed, cut, pierced, burned, frozen or injured by any method yet discovered.
I just realized why Achilles is so chill – his entire life has been an endless living hell of experimentation, and he’s learned to just make to the most of it.
Achilles does not just make the most of it. He is downright proud of his invulnerablity, and makes a point of showing it off. So he is more than OK with being used as a trap detector, and may have suggested it.
Of course, somebody should have told Max, who likely would have pointed out that while a rope is a good idea, bouncing Achilles around , tho maybe fun for both, still leaves them not fully ready for battle, and they are entering an enemy stronghold.
Totally ready for battle. Achilles major weakness is his barely more than max human strength, thanks only to not worrying about muscle damage. With sydney helping, bam, human wreckingball at high strength with max control.
Perhaps he wouldn’t mind it if something did kill him. Death would be preferable to things like being lost forewer in space. Considering that he is ageless something horrible like that will happen to him sooner or later.
Maybe his invulnerability to harm also includes mental harm? That is, he is immune to PTSD, insanity and so forth. Not much of a stretch for his power set at this point.
Given how “Zen” his character-portrayal has been so far, I imagine that he might even be too mentally-stable to suffer from the sensory deprivation-effects of an extended entombment (for example, in concrete). He might just find the resulting hallucinations “entertaining”.
It’s also curious to me that he’s able to chemically interact with food (at-least enough to TASTE it). Most authors of other versions of the invulnerability trope usually portray this condition as a curse, with their victim doomed to receive no tactile sensory input. A recent example might be the cursed crew of the “Black Pearl”, from Disney’s 1st “Pirates of the Caribbean”-film.
Such sensory detachment from the world around them is often used to explain antisocial behavior in the ‘Supers’-community. If you can’t feel any negative consequences from your actions, then you’re not getting the negative feedback needed in order to learn to avoid “Being Evil”.
For all we know he’s just OLD old, and has been round the bend of complete mental breakdown enough times to now be a walking hermit….
Actually he really is. The cast list indicates that he is ‘at least 50 (appears to be in late 20s)’. From various blogs and comments by the author we know that his hair style and fashion sense date back that far. However he does not actually remember things beyond that.
Even Achilles does not recall how old he is, or what his origins are.
Or am I misremembering this? ;-)
It is hard to tell as the millennia roll by.
Given that we now know that the supernatural are a real thing, and that there is a faction of beings and heroes from ancient Greece, it is entirely possible that Achilles really is the guy from legend.
Of course thereby making that whole ‘heel vulnerability’ thing a piece of vile propaganda spread about by his enemies!
What if that “vile propaganda” was spread by Achilles himself?
By faking his own death, he could avoid the hoards of folk who might otherwise wish to pester him for his (supposed) “Secret of Immortality”, or try to exploit him in some other way.
If it was he can’t remember it.
Which is also a good way of countering said pestering.
The exploitation though does remain a problem.
“I went insane of course, but after a million years I got bored of that and went sane…really sane”
:-D
And possible.
Pretty sure that by that point, Dabbler’s great-great-great-etc-granddaughter will invite him on her starship for a sexy trek across the galaxy.
If anything, Achilles might already be mentally insane, from the sheer scope of his power. Maybe he’s actively looking for something that can kill him. It might well be possible that his particular form of insanity manifests as “bemused acceptance” that doesn’t display as depression, but as a “looney-toon” sense of humor. After all, nothing hurts the toons & nothing can hurt him…His “psychosis” makes him believe he IS a toon.
Achilles just may well be “fruity as a nutcake.”
His only weakness…. The Dip!
Trouble is that Achilles does not mind eating off the floor. And his behaviour suggests that he may also double dip!
If Achilles has been working in the bio hazard lab, don’t eat the dip after he has been near it.
If Achilles is really a Toon in disguise, that is..
Yelp!
*runs away, and hides in kennel, shutting the door firmly*
Achilles is old and of at least average intelligence so he should have learned how to fake sanity by now.
I have a superhero RPG character (a cyborg) with invulnerability comparable to Achilles. And yes, you’re correct that such a character cannot be described in-setting as *perfectly* invulnerable… you can only be certain that they’re invulnerable beyond any reasonable ability to test the theory. Nobody has actually tested a nuclear weapon on her yet, but given given her apparent immunity to radiation, heat, and concussive force, nobody is putting money on that being enough…
In terms of power ratings, “Beyond Classification” was the term I used… if there are limits to her durability and endurance, they’re not practically measurable.
Very interesting! How did she become a cyborg (with all the injecting, cutting and implanting that implies) if she’s that invulnerable? Or is there some implanted device that activates some form of invulnerability field?
I’m not certain that the nuke would be a suckers bet, however. If you had an invulnerability field that could stand up to as much as a tank or even as much as a battleship with its thick-ass armor, you might get the exact same results of apparent immunity to radiation, heat and concussive force (up to and including a tank shell in the case of the battleship and modern tanks), but if you were to drop a nuke on either of those they would be hilariously overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the energy deposited at once.
You can get away with a LOT of apparent damage immunity by being “only” as tough as a battleship while being the size of a human, but when someone drops six orders of magnitude (1000 kilotons of TNT compared to 1 ton. 1 ton would also finish a battleship I suspect) more energy onto the invulnerable person, you better hope that they can also resist force that is over 100 000 000% greater than anything they have survived so far. This means your power needs a power source that can output just as much energy in the same amount of time, and it’s not at all certain that whatever the invulnerability draws power from to push back (otherwise the force would pass through them without affecting them, instead of ‘bouncing off’) has that much power easily available that quickly, and generally implies that you are powered by some kind of cosmic continent-sized being or extremely advanced tech since even a fusion reactor can’t output anywhere near that much energy in that short a time.
In short, nuke-tier invulnerability has some crazy implications that are very fascinating!
Curious, seeing as they’re often put in greater risks on the field than you can safely test and they might survive it, does the rating go beyond the practically testable stuff, just so you can have a rating for the chick that is hit by a 110mm cannon with its long rod or copper-jet penetrators (those things are basically sci-fi plasma projectiles) and only got a broken nose?
Like, we can test up to and including hitting you with a sledgehammer, and that’s 5 out of 5. The 110 mm chick is 7 out of 5?
Having the lighthook around his waist as a lifeline in case of pit/catapult/etc. traps is good, but he could still walk down the passage instead of being bounced on his head. Sydney is just too focused on the ten foot pole.technique and Achilles is too phlegmatic to care one way or another.
I agree with you my only defense of Sydney other than she thinks it is fun is that she doesn’t have enough control of the light hook yet to be able to lengthen it like a spool of rope while someone is walking away without being dragged along yet.
I actually suspect Achilles is ok with it. Sydney’s bizarre reactions to his ability, such as the lunch incident, are probably a breath of fresh air compared to most others, even among powered individuals.
I always remember the old tale of a group of high-level D&D players who were given a module that was designed purely to eradicate high-level players who had grown too powerful, mainly with lethal traps – Tomb of Horrors, I think?
Anyway, in RP mode they worked out where the dungeon sat in relation to other towns and modules, split up & blitzed through a series of low-level quests that their characters could do with their eyes closed, and used the resulting rewards to buy up thousands of cattle and other farm animals. They RP’d a cattle drive back to the original dungeon, and stampeded the entire herd through the dungeon ahead of them. Cleared out most of the traps and not a few of the monsters, and left the dungeon ripe for the picking. I always wondered whether the DM wanted to applaud or scream…
Strange – double-posted as a reply and a as a new post somehow. This comment was a reply to Deltharno:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2831/comment-page-1#comment-649012
Order of the Stick just used this technique except with a bunch of Anarchic Giraffes.
Anarchic? Wouldn’t they run all the wrong ways as well?
See for yourself.
Point of order. That evil cleric clearly was not holding a sacred text, which is a necessary focus for casting “recitation”! Further half the effect was being wasted as it does not just boost allies, but it could also hinder enemies. But only if they are in the immediate vicinity, when it is cast!
Run the rule-breaker over with the giraffe stampede!
On the other hand – honey badger riding a crazed giraffe into battle! My childhood on the African plains has me torn between admiration and hiding behind a very thick door now..
Your very thick door?
Honey badger doesn’t give a damn!
She is riding a crazed giraffe after all. ;-)
Nooo! Noo, Sydney, don’t listen to Dave! YOU DON’T SPLIT THE PARTY!
Yea, that’s how you die a rougeish death.
I was scanning for this, ready to add it myself.
And he calls himself an RPG nerd.
Shouldn’t Sydney have her shield up in case one of those traps is ‘kill the triggerer, and everyone for 30 feet behind them’?
Sydney, I don’t think that was what Maxi meant when she asked you and Achilles to sweep for traps!!! (Panels 1-3) But it worked :D (Panels 6-7)
To be fair? Him having a whipline on himself….helps TREMENDOUSLY. Considering his one weakness is that he can be prevented from moving.
*Achilles falls in a vat of acid*
“…The walls are too slick. Loud sigh.”
I just love Achilles’ nonchalant face. Like he’s used to either Sydney’s antics or being pushed to trigger traps. Or both.
I was wondering if Achilles knows The Occupant from the miniseries The Lost Room
The first time (in the mid-1980s) I ever heard “There is no I in team” it came from my high school track coach, which if you think about it is not very applicable in the way track events are scored in school. But, the story is that this phrase became popular after the then coach of the Chicago Bulls told a rookie Michael Jordan in 1984 that there is no “I” in team to which Michael (supposedly) said, yes… but there is no “me” in win.
Continued digging has the phrase going as far back as 1916 and most probably has military origins.
This statement has a polarizing effect and due to the modern emphasis on “teaming” without an understanding of what a “team” is or how to properly configure one, the statement has quickly found a place in the generic lame boss statements, along with thinking outside the box, trust falls, motivational posters, and “better done than perfect”.
Heard on Dude, You’re Screwed: There are two ways to do a task: Correctly and again.
It’s measure twice, cut once!
Overheard at a construction site: “I don’t understand it…I’ve cut this board three times & it’s still too short.”
Lol.
Well, practically speaking, Achilles isn’t superstrong. So if he gets stuck in a trap, he won’t be able to get himself out. Easier to have the lighthook already ready to yank him back to, well, exactly the same level of safety (for him).
Even more practical would be to just use LH as a harness or belt and still let him walk down the hall. All the practicality of a tether with none of the humiliation of being a ragdoll (unless he’s into that sort of thing).
“There is no I in team, but there is a ME if you rearrange the letters.”
Hah! A Shaun of the Dead quote on its 14th anniversary! Nice!
Also, final panel reminds me of an old comic (can’t remember what) where one character says “We should be fighting together!” while his teammate, fighting with another team’s member, says “we ARE fighting together!” and their mutual enemies just look on amused.
oh but there is an i in TEAM. It is in the A hole.
I believe at least one person on this forum is obligated to post this link in this kind of situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GBvhZgmYPY
… I love Sydney. Sydney is awesome. Sydney knows how to teamwork better than anyone!
call NOW to receive a BONUS FREE Achilles Mop Bucket with your purchase of the Achilles Mop 2000!
This is by far the best use of Achilles you could have. Plus, if the walls don’t retract, you need a glowing blue tether to pull him out. It all makes perfect sense!
I question whether the LH can actually pull him back through the walls (or whatever trap) if it stays closed, but with Max there it’s not much of an issue.