Grrl Power #629 – Dammed blood
This is where Sydney is in her life – she’s concerned, and probably reasonably so, about the blood mage covered in her favorite medium, but not phased by the fact that someone survived getting punched through two meters of rock. It’s hard to tell there in the third panel because everything is red, but at least Sciona’s nose is massively broken from the punch. She heals quick though, even without an abundance of blood all over the place.
Sciona is a bit odd as blood mages go. She mostly uses it like mana potions, to power her spells and artifacts. Other blood mages act more like vampires, absorbing blood to heal and strengthen themselves. Sciona is stronger at the moment, but that is because she figured out how to temporarily copy super powers from super powered blood, not because she’s gotten a +1 to strength for every enemy she’s killed during a big battle. That sort of Blood Mage could split class with a Bezerker and be a real menace, at least against the rabble. Less useful against bosses, unless the boss kept spitting out minions for the Bloodzerker to keep powering up from.
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She should get in there and stop that robot!
Only Sciona knows about the automaton, so far. But my concern here is, why hasn’t super-fast Maxima followed through with her punch? She should be right there next to Sciona, overhearing this “free” talk about the portal.
I would honestly have banked on her filling that particular area with a lower grade explosion in all honesty. In part to try and clear anything in the room and secondly to act as a flash bang before that particular haymaker/decapitator.
Look at the last panel – Max is busy rescuing Achilles
Achilles is virtually undamageable and can wait (witness the big fight with V & co, where he spent a lot of the battle buried under a collapsed building without any problems). Taking time out to rescue him during a battle is like taking time out to fit Superman with a Kevlar vest, it’s polite but hardly needed. :-)
getting the rest of your team mobile is still a good tactic.
Hard to tell, but I think the gold blob actually just Dabbler tossing her jacket aside to draw Soul Reaver. Not sure why the stone pillars are sagging though…
Look lower, behind Sydney’s neck.
Sydney is wearing a Maxima earring!
Is that regulation battledress?
Gaah! The eye beam fused Maxima to the back of Sydney’s head!
Especially considering they are not aware they are on time limit but suspect the fight will get worse. I think Max behaves correctly. Dabbler, meanwhile, should talk less and hurry with her attack.
Official rule, in the comic:
So when they speak it is not holding up whatever they are doing. This comes from several angles. One being that comics only give you snapshots, of time, in each frame. So anything they are doing (like walking through the gap, peering in, stepping over the rubble and advancing) is still going on, as they talk.
But figuring out how long dialogue will take, and matching that to the action, is actually a whole job in itself, and Dave already has a lot of roles: artist, writer, colourist (with occasional help from Keith, when Dave can afford to hire him), site manager, it service monkey and moderator.
So this rule is an important one, as it stops Dave from having to worry about syncing these things. And it does not reduce the quality of the comic, by taking time away from the other critical roles. But there is an even more important one!
Comedy tops all. This is a comedy webcomic, so anything which enhances that takes precedence over all else. Here Dabbler gets to deliver a droll (if true) punchline. On top of which it can also add to drama, and all sorts of other mood or tone-setting aspects.
Finally it is a tradition, of the genre. One which Dave, when choosing which bits to run with, and which to discard (like anatomically impossible ‘sexy’ poses), decided was worth keeping. And rightly so!
Therefore, to get maximum enjoyment, from the comic, just take it that time pauses, whilst a hero or villain is delivering their one-liner, or if a mid-combat chat is going on. That will prevent knickers getting in a twist, and allow you to appreciate the scene, to its full potential.
*bites paw, and lets a few drops of blood fall onto the runes*
Is… is it wrong that my first reaction to this is a desire to say “Good Boy!”
*wags tail contentedly*
Messing up language can be a good thing in a spell. (See: Sefer Yetzirah)
According to what I’m told, when using Jewish magic to create a clay golem, the word that must be inscribed on its forehead is “Life”. Rub out part of the word when you’re done and the word becomes “Truth” and it crumbles to the clay it was made of.
Well I am a ‘good boy’, not a ‘goo boy’!
*swishes tail indignantly*
I believe the two words are truth and death, actually
Correct. “אמת” and “אמ” respectively. But a pretty good summation, barring that slip up.
*crosses claws, in the hope that WordPress recognises that font*
Emet and Met, right?
Correct. Per Wikipedia.
But, but, but…. neither of those look like the word ‘Two’ at all! (Oh, wait, different language…. not to mention universe…)
Gaah!
*places paws protectively over burnt eye sockets*
TVTropes warning please!
Thank goodness I am a touch-typist, or else I could not even make this reply!
*starts to touch screen, to try and feel the words, in other comments*
unless it actually changes the shape of the rune, you only just added more fuel to the fire.
sciona was concerned about the blood getting there, because as a counduit for the spellowrk, this new blood would only sap the energy out of the spell.
to disrupt the spellwork with your blood, you would have to smear it all over.
Things are more simple than that. The particular blood-spell Sciona wants cast depends on a particular pattern drawn in blood on the floor. If a puddle of blood touches that pattern, then there is now a very different overall pattern of blood on the floor. The intended effect will change, and perhaps result in no effect at all. So, Sciona must keep that pattern secure.
Which should count as a thing for anyone watching her to notice: disrupt that pattern, such as by smearing it with Sydney’s lighthook/tentacle/snake, and Sciona’s overall plan gets disrupted, too.
I’m not sure this is such a good idea. If there is one thing worse than a blood ritual, it’s a blood ritual going wrong.
Disrupting Sciona’s plans is worth it. Far better a chaotic wrongness, than a directed one.
*crosses the blood streams*
I was going to say “Just pee on it”
I will! Well, if my Pretender Armour let me, that is. How about we just drag some rocks & stuff over it all, scratch it up nicely? That might cause Little Miss Broken-Nose some trouble…
I’ll help with that.
Also I’ll get that costume blood fake stuff and mix that into the existing runes. Can’t do blood magic with fake blood (or maybe you can but the entity you summon is super pissed about it and initially goes after the summoner for allowing the spell to be sabotaged.)
While there is some truth in what you say, the directed wrongness is probably not supposed to blow up in Sciona’s face, while the chaotic one might.
To draw an analogy, detonating an H-Bomb in its silo prevents it from reaching a city, but the one that pushed the trigger might not fare well. See comment thread just below for some even worse possible outcomes.
Indeed. But it is all a matter of risk analysis. Sciona is very intelligent and knows she is up against a team of the most powerful supers on the planet. Yet she is quite happy to just stall for that gate to open. Whatever she wants it to do, she is confident that it will solve her problems.
Then consider that her way of solving the problem of ‘how do I get rid of all those nasty turrets, which can shoot dozens of different deadly attacks?’ She turned a human being into a walking bomb. She could just as easily used a sheep, but preferred to convince someone she was an ally, then murder him.
Contrast that to a random effect, which may be as bad as you fear, or it may be just a “pfft” noise and some acrid smoke. One is likely to be both horrific and deadly (or it may just be a gate home), whilst the other may or may not be so.
Either way Sciona is closer to it. So, if it is nasty, she will get it worse than our heroines. :-D
Wonder what would have happened if the blood had reached the portal. Erase it/make it unusable or lead to unforeseen consequences.
That would probably activate the portal when the circle in the air is incomplete, which would cause an uncontrolled tear in the fabric of space-time. Sciona does not really care about the rest of the world, but she wants to be around to abuse it. If the entire state disappears during the event horizon destabilization explosion (see Hawking radiation, micro black hole, naked singularity), she really would not care; she would just want to be somewhere else when it happened.
Salt water is supposed to be particularly good at disrupting magic workings.
Yet the salinity of blood is equivalent to that of sea water so that supposition seems to be mere hearsay at best and disinformation for the uninitiated at worst.
Maaaaybe.
Oooor you are supposed to use water which is MORE salty.
One Dead Sea flood, incoming!
*opens up huge wormhole, and red water gushes out*
Red? Oops, wrong time-space, coordinates!
*shouting through top of wormhole*
Sorry, give me a few minutes, and I can reverse the flow!
So when it comes to seas, better Dead than Red?
I will have to check with Moses, on that one.
What a fraud. Guy couldn’t even part his own hair.
Plus, he owes me five bucks.
People do not have to be able to perform miracles. Asking for them is all that is necessary.
Whether they are granted, and how mysteriously that might be enacted, are another matter.
If you are quick, you can nip through the wormhole and chase him up on your debt. Just watch out for chariots!
Who knows? Maybe Moses would have you open your portal from the Nile River, during the time when it “ran red, as was as blood.” That should mess up Sciona’s sigil rightly enough.
I’m pretty sure Scion was just worried about the mystical runes being covered in blood and therefore being erased
the question is if messing up the one on the chest did mess with her powers.
No, I’m pretty sure she was preventing premature or out of sequence spell activation.
To paraphrase the H-Bomb analogy, ‘open silo cover before launching missile’.
Heh.
Or it could be both? The blood could disrupt the integrity of the rune circle (possibly resulting in a
flat failure of the spell, or making summoned beasties uncontrolled, or loosing immunity to whatever effects are evoked through the portal). But if the runes survive significant smudging, then it may do as you suggest. Say randomising what is summoned.
Forgetting one thing Puppy: who in this scene is able to instantly *WINK* out? And fast enough to escape GEoD’s murderous gasp?
Not really. Sciona has a huge range of abilities, so could do many things afterwards. However she would no longer have the principle thing that she was trying to achieve. And, if she did as you suggest, she would be abandoning her base of operations, her uber tin-opener artefact and all her precious technomagic construction capability.
So still a good result. And then only if she can teleport at will. There are various options that folks have proposed (to allow other scenes in the comic make sense) which would render that option either unavailable, or useless. For instance, the teleport:
• is limited to a certain number of uses per day (possibly all used up).
• requires some time in between uses (say an hour, in which case it has not recharged yet).
• is actually a ‘recall’ spell (which takes her back to her base, i.e. it would be useless to escape from the base).
The latter option might allow Sciona to get out of sight, if the arrival point is not in this room. So still of some use, but would still suffer from the problems listed above. Of course it could allow her to regroup with her manikins and prepare a counter-attack. But she will have left the critical things unguarded.
Assuming that she even survives the critical failure results. There is no guarantee that she could teleport before an explosion hits her, for example. And certain results would still affect her no matter what the distance. For instance if the random result comes up with ‘caster is sucked into Hell’, it does not matter where she is, when that triggers.
If there’s not a non-consensual cleaning spell in the next panel then Dabbler’s doing something wrong.
for a second there, Sciona looked like a bug in the front grill of a big truck.
I was thinking more like a bird that had a meeting of minds with a F1500.
Now bird and hood ornament is way way WAY messier …. for the bird.
You know what was the last thing that went through the bug’s mind?
His @$$.
Are ampersand dollars like Mickey Mouse dollars?
Cleaning the blood off Scionia, or cleaning the rune off the floor?
Oh no!
My Rune is Roooned!!!
Heh.
Cleaning spells could cover a pretty large area, if designed to clean up rooms rather than just people. In which case Dabbler could easily do both.
Kudos to Spicefreak (and another reader elsewhere, with the same idea) for coming up with a powerful use of an otherwise weak cantrip type spell. Importantly though being one that we know Dabbler uses.
Taking out an end-of-level-boss / archvillain, just using a cantrip, would earn a stonking big experience point bonus, if it was in a game where I was the Games Master!
*wags tail magnanimously*
With bonus points, if she ended up with clown makeup on, whether the plan was 100% successful or not.
Got a lot of messy blood everywhere? Who are you gonna call? Not the Ghostbuster because they only deal with ectoplasm. Call the Viscera Cleanup Detail, of course!
Funny (both meanings) game concept.
Just makes me think of people who have to clean up rooms where bodies have lain for a long while, plus other bio-hazard areas, as a regular job. If any of our readers are in that line, you have my respect. But boy do I not want to play a game with that premise! My imagination is far too vivid, regardless of how blocky the game graphics are.
And again maxima is being oddly stupid. First by letting sciona take her sweet time dealing with achilles instead of punching her while she was immobilized, and now she is wasting time breaking achilles free instead of telling dabbler or halo to take care of it because she is best placed to finish this fight while sciona is dealing with that last hit.
Hiro got pinned by a pillar, also. Let’s at least hope Maxima freed him before Achilles, since he is both more vulnerable to damage, and also more powerful with respect to the overall fight here.
Achilles is the one person on the team who cannot bleed. So he is the only one who can engage Sciona without risking making her stronger, by copying their super powers. Just imagine what would happen if Maxima gets a cut and Sciona gains her powers too!
Bear in mind that Sciona has already shown that she can react faster than Maxima. Twice! Firstly parrying her energy attack. Secondly in cutting Maxima, with a flurry of wing blows, then teleporting out.
And that was before upgrading herself with eight super powers!
Granted Achilles is lacking in offensive capability, other than holding on and being a pain. However he does make an excellent missile. ;-)
Dabbler may have a way of doing that, although not one that she has demonstrated. Although I guess she could shoot him out with the railgun? But that punches through mountains, and they do not know what is above them. There could be a town, for example.
Halo though would be totally unable to help. That rock weighs way more than the 16 ton capacity that the lighthook has. And any use of the PPO, for cutting, would face the same risks as Dabbler using her gun (is there an armoury, filled with munitions, just above this chamber?) as well as having the possibility of molten rock splattering over team members.
Agreed. Maxima, or the rest of the team, should have kept the pressure on sciona
Not a good idea, for the reasons I gave above. Achilles was only holding Sciona’s arms (and not very effectively at that). Her wings were unrestrained. So trying to punch Sciona would have a great risk that Maxima would instead be cut, and Sciona’s power would leap up exponentially!
Not to mention that Sciona was able to cut Maxima even before her upgrade. She now has super strength (and various other super powers which may further enhance her blows) which could make her wing blows lethal, even for Maxima!
This pattern of fighting is covered in the ‘Superhero Code of Conduct’ manual. The good guys have to give the bad guy the option of surrendering. They can’t attack without warning. They have to try to capture before resorting to lethal force. They can’t kick a guy when he is down (figuratively or literally). If the bad guy drops his weapon in a sword fight he is allowed to pick it back up. The heroes have to save civilians even if it means the bad guy gets away. And lastly, never kill off the villain if you think his return in the next issue will boost sales.
So far, Archon has failed all points
She isn’t dead yet. And has had several opportunities now to surrender.
Specifically Achilles has asked her to do so, whilst using non-lethal force and attempting to tell Sciona her Miranda rights. And the rest of the team stopped attacking Sciona, whilst this was going on.
A point that they received much criticism for, but little praise. However Sciona chose to respond with lethal force. As such they could have taken the kid gloves off, and Maxima could have chosen to take Sciona’s head off (she did not use her most powerful attacks, just one near the top of the range).
Instead she just ramped up the power of the attack enough to seriously harm Sciona, but not necessarily kill her. Which is the kind of technique which is used in super hero fights, where trying to capture, if possible, rather than kill.
So, although O.B. Juan opted for a more tongue-in-cheek take, the points were actually all well made, and stand up to scrutiny.
Last panel look unshaded, especially Achilles. Also I cannot really discern, what the hell is going on it?
Is Dabbler giving the finger to Maxima?
Dabbler has taken off her jacket and is throwing it aside.
Obligatory bad-arse hero cloak toss.
Earlier Achilles got himself pinned to the ceiling by a sudden earth spire, in the last panel Maxima destroyed the spire to free Achilles.
Bloodzerker…
Now THERE is a terrifying character concept.
Nope a blood bezerker would be a paladin of slaughter
Blood for the blood god etcetera.
Sounds potentially more bad-ass than Sláine!
You take that back! Nothing is more bad-ass than a full warp-gasm!!
Kiss my axe!
Danu will not approve of this heresy.
“Less useful against bosses, unless the boss kept spitting out minions for the Bloodzerker to keep powering up from.”
But then doesn’t ArchSwat count as a full set of boss rushes or at least bosses with mini bosses? I mean, even the less bulky members are rather substantial on their own when you get down to it. Also on the note of her sudden possession of powers… any bets on how long they actually last and if she’s apparently going to take out her own summoning circle by accident?
You really have to look to see Achilles falling from the ceiling. I guess Max is getting her team un-trapped.
I think you did a fantastic job of showing Sciona after taking such a hard punch in panel 3. The broken nose, swollen lips and face…
Now, will anyone actually notice how she tried to protect the magic circle from the blood?
I did, I did!
Oh, you mean of the team. Right … OK … I will just go back to gnawing on that 4th wall.
Poor Achilles, he is looking a little flat.
If Sydney’s train the thought follows my own they were both worried about have been a glitch power overload
If this was a certain ninja themed anime this would have been the ideal time to switch with a “blood clone” distraction withing a distraction.
Distractions within distractions within distractions?
Now you are thinking like a ninja.
Nobody will ever suspect it is me, in this disguise!
Kuchiyose no jutsu! (now what did you get? :p)
“No whammy, not a rat, or a cat!“
Gee, Mr. Larson, you sure are good at avoiding the Whammy…
I got the broken nose pretty clearly. And I always read the comic before I read your notes. The eye swollen shut cinched it. But in panel 6 her eye was open, so then I was thinking I might have misinterpreted the damage. You might have added in one of your soundomatopeas or something to indicate that Sciona is healing. As it is, you’re breaking the first rule of writing by telling us via Word of God and not showing us instead.
PS: I have zero idea what else is going on in panel 6. It looks sorta like Sciona is making a unicorn horn using a lock of hair and the blood covering her hair, hands, and basically everything. In panel 3 there’s no hair shown as being in the way of her vision or anything, so her need to do whatever she is doing with her hair (if she’s even doing something with her hair) escapes me.
She’s simply wiping her forehead, as (a normal) one does when they have just averted catastrophe
The eye may have just been closed because she got blood in it.
The cheekbone looks like it may be broken as well. If not it, and the forehead above it, both look puffed up and likely bruised. As such the puffiness of the eye sold it as being swollen.
So a
prettyuh not so pretty messed up face.She not so pretty now…
She’s been worse.
I don’t subscribe to traditional beauty standards!
You like freshly beaten women sticky with blood?
I mostly wrote that because I wanted to see what responses I’d get.
And no. I’m more into the ‘women covered in blood because they just finished destroying one of their own enemies’. Having followers who aren’t strong, smart, or willful enough to do anything else are useless, but having the strongest, smartest people with the strongest willpower are definitely a pleasure to have, because you know they have a choice and like you for you.
I was tempted to your line about ‘I don’t subscribe to traditional beauty standards’, but I do often say that I prefer Sydney and the other non-California-beach-babe type looks. So felt that my line was becoming a bit of a ‘stuck recording’.
Plus I decided it did not really fit here, anyhow. Given that I like Sydney because she has a girl-next-door kind of look. I.e. she has a more traditional look (by virtue of it being the more common). As opposed to the idealised image promoted by glossy mags and Hollywood.
Which is a point worth noting. I recall a scientific study made, where researchers travelled to the few remaining (at that time) places where there were tribes who had minimal contact with the outside world. They showed the men pictures of a range of women, and asked them to pick out the most desirable ones.
Regardless of the culture (it was repeated in various places around the globe), the Hollywood A-list type females were all placed near the bottom of the pile. When asked why, the responses were along the lines of ‘they all look sick’, ‘I prefer my women healthy, not starving’ or ‘those ones look like they have diarrhea!’
Nobody want a girl who poops her pants alot… well, most men do not want that. There are probably a few out there who gets their crank turned by excrement.
South Park said that was Germany.
South Park says a lot of strange things.
Well yeah. You and I like Sydney, Krona, non-superlycanthrope Pixel, etc.
Reason for my feeling is I’ve been assaulted by females IN THAT WAY and they all had the same… anatomical size. Since then I’ve realized I feel about that the same as a male (assuming) might feel about another male’s anatomy dangling open right next to their face. So I’d rather find someone that gravity can’t attack to such a degree.
I kinda liked her when she was mostly orc but now that I’ve gotten used to her true form looking back at her orc for seems extra ugly. I can kinda get why she was so desperate to get her body back.
I actually thought she was cute there before noticing the broken nose. She reminds me of Chiana with her hair like that, and that neckline.
Points to you for the Farscape reference. And yes, I too found Chiana alluring in a spellbinding sort of way. Most attractive of all female characters in that show.
Skorpius is a top 10 SciFi villain of all time in my book.
Oh her. Many character names mean nothing to me, due to having severe problems with recalling them correctly. So I have to make an intense effort to counter that. Meaning I only try with the ones I may use more frequently. Her name did not even trigger a ‘that sounds familiar’ feeling!
But, yea, I fancied her the most too. Although I did quite like the human female-looking one was pretty good. I think Chiania’s perky attitude, body poses (she had a number of interesting affectations) and character in general all contributed heavily to that.
Her exotic looks alone though were pretty darned good.
I saw an article on body modding the other day (although it is nothing new to me), and fancied various of the women who had made permanent extreme changes. Elf ears being obvious. But you can also get coloured tattoos for the eye (turning the normally white parts coloured).
The most prominently featured woman had purple eyes. Which were pretty good. Weirdly (given that I have fairly conservative tastes as far as facial tattoos and body jewellery), I actually felt that they were a bit too subdued!
My thoughts were ‘if you are going to go for it, go all the way’. I have seen that done far more strikingly, and each opted for the brighter colours. My favourite was a deep blue.
But I quite like the effect from an all-black eye. I would probably have qualms about how others might take that extreme an option mind. However I would not let that stop me trying to get a date or striking up a relationship! :)
Yeah, I was always a sucker for her for all those reasons. I’ve read that Gigi Edgley came up with Chiana’s unique movements herself, pure genius :)
My issue with eye tattoos is that I cannot mentally seperate the effect from the process and they evoke the usual primal squeemish reaction to having sharp things aimed at one’s eye far more strongly than Achilles ever did.
Well, that and I’d prefer to appear terran on my days off.
Very much agreed. Did you see the youtube video of Gigi Edgely (Chi) as Cheetarah from Thundercats?
Sydney, why you drop the shield? Your normal human squishy without it.
EEEEEK!
This was one of my first thoughts as well – Mr Bubble should stay in place until this whole encounter has wrapped up.
“Sciona is a bit odd as blood mages go”
Really? Is there some kind of “normal” that describes blood mages?
The Blood Mage Union probably have rules for it.
If there was one I think she revoked her membership with a blood drive.
No no, not her membership. The Blood Mage Union.
No, no Dabbler! Have you not heard the Alari adage?
but do make certain to bring the proper sauce for the wings
Any particular favourites?
I like variety, so am always keen to try out new sauces, that I have not come across before. For example got heavily into chipolote sauce and some of its variants. Which I actually stumbled across here. However I have the problem that Bulgarians (as a broad society) have pretty bland tastes, when it comes to spices. Plus is very poor, so does not have enough people to support niche tastes. There are just not enough folks buying things like that.
As such any exciting stuff like that is only on supermarket shelves for a while, before it vanishes. Just leaving the traditional chile sauce. Which they have in abundance, everywhere. Likewise a similar problem with other condiments, but so long as they are not too rich a taste, they can be found in the more cosmopolitan stores, even if the traditional ones drop them.
So I have found that I need to blend my own, using whatever is available. At the moment I have been having to take my kitties in for vaccinations, and there is only a small local supermarket near my vets. But I do have a favourite for such situations.
I blend chile sauce in with mayonnaise. Plus I give the chicken a light dusting with Aromat, which I am able to keep stocked from the UK, all year round.
If I am cooking the chicken myself, then I use a local type of mixed spice, not dissimilar to Aromat, which works far better than cooking it in any sauce. That I will often just eat as it comes. But the mayo and chile is a good option for accompanying the deeper meat, which is not infused in the mixed spice taste. That I will typically use in sandwiches.
What will Dabbler and Sydney do against a blood mage?
I would advocate Halo grabbing Sciona, with the tentacle, and smearing her all over the blood runes!
Dabbler is already drawing her sword, so clearly is seeking to acquire more cybernetic limbs.
She should use Achilles as a mop instead. It worked great for them recently.
:-D
ArcSwat: we’ll mop the floor with you.™ *
* Team membership may not exempt you from being on either end of literal or figurative floor-mopping.
Cleaning spell?
+1
She could do with some foundation, to cover those bruises.
Foundation? Like the column rubble being used as a baseball bat against Sciona’s face?
so sciona is summoning something that’s worth putting herself in between her circle and an entire pack of supers…
I’ll just leave this here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1145
That is a popular assumption.
Maybe Sydney should raise her shield, if she does not want to become a crispy pile of ash, due to the great burning, heralding his arrival?
He never did see the Urologist
Urologist jokes never fail to remind me of the time I found a Loin Cloth of Flame Jet in Daggerfall.
“So, you say there’s a burning sensation when you urinate?”
Ahh Elder Scrolls, always with your silly jokes.
In all fairness, there was a great burning at the press conference… when you’re an immortal being, an hour and a month are pretty close to one another…
Heh. Fair enough.
Somebody better call the blood plumber, we got a burst holding tank!
Man, no black pudding tonight!
This looks like a modified water heater – they’re lucky in a way that Sciona just (presumably) emptied a lot of its contents so it didn’t explode from the pressure overload.
It looks like Dabbler version “You have the right to remain silent” involves the silence of the grave. Mind you, police often draw their weapons when dealing with dangerous individuals, just in case they need to use it.
Oops, Dabbler‘s version of “You have …
If anyone noticed Sciona protecting the circle, her plans should be over: there are far too many ways to mess up that drawing *while* attempting to incapacitate her. In fact, avoiding messing it up even by accident is going to take a small miracle.
As far as Max taking a moment to free Hiro, it would not have been my choice, but in theory Halo and Dabbler have enough power to keep Sciona occupied. It’s just not a job I would have left to the Rookie and the Liason by choice.
I’d order Dabbler to analyze/neutralize/cauterize the lab while holding Halo in reserve for a “Vehemence situation” (which was arguably what happened in the previous Update).
That said, you’d think Dabbler would have some sort of plan prepared for physically invulnerable foes, like a tickle laser, or maybe some kind of mesmerizing aura.
Yeah, the tactics are getting short changed by the story here.
this comic has been my online cocaine for so many years, thanks and keep up the good work man!
*snorts a line of heroines*
Okay, I lol’d.
The females on the team may or may not be willing to participate in an exchange program for your sniffing habits, especially given the relative height of your canine nose to their bodies.
I think most of the heroines on the team would appreciate it if you kept your nose out of their (ahem) “business”.
Now I’m curious what what would happen and I know I’m not the only one.
And shouldn’t Dabs look at the portal or haven’t figure out that Sciona is trying to buy time?
Dabbler is presently drawing her sword. So it looks like she intends to tromp her hooves all over the summoning circle and poke at Sciona, at the same time.
Now seems the time for Syd’s water pistol to disrupt the blood ritual
:-D
I wonder if Anvil rated that as ‘Batman approved’?
If you want blood… you got it!
It’s criminal
There ought to be a law
Criminal
There ought to be a whole lot more
Why would Sidney drop the bubble shield now? She needs all the protection she can get, even the rubble exploding from the wall impact would be lethal to her. And dabbler is tied down babysitting her when she should be free to circle round the heavies brawling and block the exit, at least.
Dabbler is not babysitting, she is drawing her sword. So clearly intends to engage Sciona.
Sydney should indeed keep her bubble up. There are some minor mitigators though:
1) Sciona has just been MFP’d through two metres of rock, and is still recovering from that.
2) Sydney can raise her shield in a heartbeat. So very few attacks are a threat to her. If Sciona even looks in her direction, she can get her bubble up instantly.
3) Halo does have to get through that gap, and the shield was too big for that.
4) Sydney looks really cute like that. With her cuteness aura raised, Sciona would need to make a willpower check, at -10, to try and attack her!
re: point 3, Sydney can make the shield fairly small, I think she could fit through the hole. But what do we call it when she reverses the polarity on the embiggener? Debiggening? Emshrinkener?
Well, in the past I deduced that Sydney must have shrunk the shield, in order to get out of the Steak House, without exposing herself to fire. But we have yet to see Sydney make use of an emshinkener.
We do see the shield take on a torpedo-like shape, when Sydney is flying fast. Likewise the shield does vary in size quite a lot (even before finding the embiggener button). However I do not recall seeing the bubble small enough to go through that gap. So felt it worth adding to the list, as a possibility.
Although I was careful how I phrased it. It was too big to go through that gap. :-)
embiggundo
Emdownsizeo?
If they ever do knock someone through an office building, I want the onomatopoeia to read “downsized!”
:-D
I guess the relevant conclusion is that Max is really not that good at tactics and strategy.
The main reason for her promotion is that she is so far the strongest known super. She gets what she want. And she has the power to keep the rest of the archon troops in short line. I doubt someone less powerful could do that.
Of course alternatively she is arrogant enough to think the fight is over. That the punch took Sciona out. Thats why she is busy freeing teemmates.
Since it’s the first time someone’s gone to free Achilles mid-fight, there’s probably a tactical reason to get him. My money’s on maxing speed and strength, then using him as a flail.
Maxima is a lieutenant colonel. You do not expose your unit’s commander to attack unnecessarily! She is using perfectly sensible hit and run tactics. Halo and Dabbler are the two next most powerful supers, in the unit, and are both there and able to act.
Bear in mind that in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park™ there were plenty of readers advocating that Maxima should super speed around the car park, punching every villain. Or use her energy attack to nuke the lot.
Either of which would have resulted in her being instantly defeated! On account of For Whom the Death Tolls having a power which does that, to anyone who attacks him. And if Maxima had been using lethal force, then the nemisis power would likely have been equally strong and have killed her!
Plus we have seen that Sciona has weapons that can use mental attacks. Which Maxima’s force fields do not protect her from at all! So she would be relying purely upon her willpower, to resist. Which may well not be up to the task. Likewise we have seen that Sciona’s wings were capable of cutting through Maxima’s force field, even prior to her latest upgrade with nine more super powers!
I must confess though, that I too would be pushing home the attack, with utmost aggression, in this situation. But know from my online gaming experience, that going up against an arch-villain, like that, can be fatal.
Maxima has survived two wars, including battles against supers, so knows what happens if you do not send the pawns in first.
At the car park and again here, there is a lot of value in having the full team engaged instead of sending your primary tank to soak up all the damage. Murphy’s 11th and 13th laws remind us that taking a moment to regroup is probably a good idea, especially when a) it brings more of your team into play, and b) you’re about to breach the enemy’s lair.
Looks like she’s learned not to split the party after all.
Don’t forget the 9th.
Sydney!!! why is your bubble down!
Recruit! Why did you drop your shield anywhere near a BLOOD MAGE covered in BLOOD?!
+1
maybe that’s not Sydney, but her illusory duplicate?
Oooh.
Nice thought.
I should point out that all seven orbs are in evidence above Sydney’s head. However if the truesight orb is genuinely intended to create an illusionary decoy (as opposed to it having been intended for purely telepresence purposes), then it would make sense that it would have the option to ‘tweak’ the image to make it look like that orb was not being used.
So possible, but, to date, not an option we have seen. Each use of the telepresence orb has always shown Halo’s projected image holding it.
Sciona’s covered in a lot of blood. How much is hers?
Most of it is from the tank of blood she smashed into. So some of it may be Pixel’s and Sydney’s.
:-(
Sydney wouldn’t be phased unless Sciona had a Star Trek gun. She’s fazed by the blood.
I think I have discovered where Halo’s orbs come from!
Surprised no one is just taking a potshot at the magic circle. It doesn’t seem like it would take much to damage. Just scuff a line. A pistol could do it at range.
The art on this page is amazing. The blood in Sciona’s hair and on her face is pretty convincing. And I love Dabbler’s pose.
Although, if that is a tank of blood, I would expect Sciona’s hair to be more of a goopy mess. I’ll call it an acceptable break from reality.
Still, today’s last panel is one of my favourite panels you have drawn.
I wonder how many more years, Real Time, before we find out what Sydney’s last Orb does?
*claws crossed, for it being a long time*
The longer it is, the more time people will have that on their list of reasons for carrying on coming back to the comic.
Mind you, when that is check off, there is still going to be ‘just what happens when that middle skill is filled in, on the tree?’
Is that the dinner bell?
It might take awhile, but it will be worth it.
That sure is a long wait! I am going to carry on watching until the end though. I want to see if he gets out, before one of the invasion waves destroys his life support!
The circles done for.
Now that everyone knows Sciona is that durable they’re gonna start using significantly stronger attacks. The one’s that probably have a bunch of “splash damage” to them.
Unless time is already up of course.
Dabbler knows magic, but Sydney knows comic book villain stuff and is far more perceptive than most people give her credit for.
One of the two should notice that Sciona just took an action to divert blood from hitting that bloodrune on the floor.
Even if Sydney doesn’t know what it is, it should be obvious to her that Sciona doesn’t want it messed up, and being into RPGs and Fantasy as well, would know that messing up magic circles and runes will break their magic.
I expect her to try and blast it with the pew pew, or wipe blood on it with the lighthook. Or point it out to Dabbler hoping she has an Erase spell handy.
Clever stuff, and in character too :)
Indeed. Plus, if Dabbler does not have an erase spell, she can always opt for her clean spell. Not that I can take credit on that version, as other commentators came up with it.