The Order of the Stick

And their activity around the rift probably amounts to "Ho Jesus, get away from it!"

Yeah, I'm expecting Azure City to never be liberated. I think its existence is the one bone that Redcloak is going to get thrown; when the Plan inevitably fails, Redcloak will be able to die knowing he still benefitted the goblins in an amazing way, and that his people have a shot at actually building a civilization. Redcloak has already won, he's just too invested in the Plan to see it.

I expect a dying moment of clarity where he realizes this, and it'll be what puts him apart from Xykon; musing on both Xykon and Tarquin's speeches about the nature of evil, Xykon got to be the butch while Redcloak got to be the bitch, but the last five minutes are going to suck pretty hard for him. Redcloak's "evil but for good reasons" will let him go out with a smile.

edited 28th Feb '15 5:39:55 AM by TobiasDrake

Well. If Redcloak fucks up enough, I wouldn't put it past Xykon to personally destroy Gobbotopia just to spite him. Imagine that, the Azure paladins going to retake their city only to find a smoldering ruin filled with the corpses of goblin families.

Seems a little dark for this comic.

Tell that to the dragons!

Xykon doesn't give a damn about Gobbotopia. He's not the kind of guy who blows up cities just to punish betrayal; he'll leave Redcloak a smoking pile of ash and move on.

He's not? Because I totally think he is. Imprisoning Redcloak somewhere, and later dropping him off in the shattered ruins of Gobbotopia to see all his works come to naught, with no thought that leaving a dark cleric amid a mountain of corpses might come back to bit him in the ass one day seems like exactly the kind of thing he would do.

I concur that Xykon is exactly spiteful enough to raze Gobbotopia to punish Redcloak, but think that it'd probably go down this way:

1. Kill Redcloak.
2. Raze Gobbotopia.
3. Move on and find something else to do.

Xykon is the type that would kill Redcloak and imprison him in the gem then force him to watch as he destroys Gobbotopia.

So in regards to the inevitable fight with Xykon. Under ideal conditions they actually seem like they have a pretty good chance. Assuming something horrible hasn't happened to O-Chul and Lien Xykon will be up against 8 high level adventurers, three of which have weapons that are particularly effective against undead creatures. It's too bad Durkula and the IFCC will probably go and fuck it all up.

Come to think of it, that's likely exactly why Durkula was placed into the group.

Oh wait, he has no connection to the IFFC. I'd forgotten.

Well, whatever the case, there are a lot of issues that the Order has to deal with.

It's not impossible for Hel to have some kind of deal with the IFCC. She wants to destroy Thor which is probably on the IFCC's to do list if they ever mount an attack on the Celestial Realm.

True, but I get the feeling they are leaving out the part where they probably destroy her as well.

Then again, she likely plans to double-cross them right back.

What a team.

Spiteful enough to destroy Gobbotopia.

Apathetic enough to have forgotten where it is.

And then, years later, randomly wandering the world, Xykon will come across Gobbotopia, remember Redcloak and burn it to the ground extra hard

Basically that.

If Xykon's in Gobbotopia at the time, he's spiteful enough to raze it to the ground just to make Redcloak suffer. If not, however, then he's not going to bother flying or teleporting all the way back there just to do it.

He's too apathetic, and that's work. Easier just to smoke the goblin and move on.

edited 28th Feb '15 3:40:28 PM by TobiasDrake

I dunno if Xykon knows exactly to what extent Redcloak's been screwing him over, though. I'm pretty sure I remember Xykon saying that he likes the world enough to not want to destroy it wholesale, so he has a sense of self-preservation, and once he realizes the Gate's no good for anything other than holding the world ransom, he's gonna have nothing to do. And when he realizes he has been led by the nose for nothing this whole damn time, he's gonna be a kind of pissed-off he's never been before. Quite possibly even pissed off enough to put effort into getting his vengeance on Redcloak's people.

He thinks what the Gate holds is shareable power, not just a doomsday button; he thinks he and Redcloak are gonna cast the spell, he's gonna kill Redcloak because of course, and then he's gonna have a new, big-ass toy to play with as he sees fit. The bit he doesn't yet seem to know is that he can't use the Gate, and even if he kills Redcloak, the entire campaign was completely pointless for him.

edited 28th Feb '15 3:57:19 PM by Knowlessman

Xykon's a pretty straightforward guy, and already suspects the plan he's been given is bunk. Plus, he's in this For the Evulz rather than any real motivation, which means he's not very emotionally invested in it anyway. That's what sets him apart from Redcloak as far as goals go: if this fails, Redcloak's entire life will have been for nothing, and Xykon...well, he'll just go find something else sufficiently evil to do, because he doesn't give a shit, this was just a thing to do. There is no Failure Condition here for Xykon other than death, because he doesn't really want anything out of it.

I really don't think he's going to throw a huge world-shattering, "Gasp, I HAVE BEEN BETRAYED, I shall now dedicate myself to every conceivable form of vengeance I can achieve!" tantrum over it. He might be pissed off enough to skin Redcloak alive. He might have a hearty laugh at the thought of blackmailing the gods into submission. He might blow up the final Gate for lulz.

Xykon's primary motivation is his own entertainment value. He'll do whatever seems like the most enjoyable thing at the time.

edited 28th Feb '15 4:03:42 PM by TobiasDrake

That actually makes him more dangerous than if he just killed Redcloak.

There's nothing more dangerous than a wildcard.

edited 28th Feb '15 4:43:25 PM by HandsomeRob

Yes. That is exactly what's so dangerous about Xykon. He's nowhere near predictable enough for the comfort of knowing that, if he finds out he's been duped, he'll just kill Redcloak and that'll be the end of it. There are many different things Xykon can do with that reveal, dependant on how he finds out, where he is along the way when he finds out, and his general mood at the time.

On a completely unrelated note, I was wandering about Therkla's alignment. I guess that it was debated before, but the new bonus comic may have some new information to add. I would say she is True Neutral, for the following reasons. She is Good enough to avoid killing innocent people (I'm not just talking about Elan, see bonus comic), but she works for an unambiguously Evil noble. She is Lawful enough to be loyal to Kubota even after she "betrays" him, but Chaotic enough to be a ninja.

*8: "Finally the right city! You have no idea how hard it is to destroy a city and everyone in it. I would know after the last dozen ones."

I might have not read through the archives for some time but xyklon is just following the plan for the evlulz right?

He is following the plan for a promise of even more overwhelming power than he already has.

He is going to use that power for evlulz.

edited 1st Mar '15 5:04:21 AM by Adannor

R.I.P. batter. It was nice knowing you, but now that you've misspelled Xykon's name, he's going to go all Fourth Wall breaking and Meteor Swarm your face. After breaking about half a dozen other Fourth Walls and killing the people behind them.

Yes. This actually isn't in the archives but was instead in the Start of Darkness book, but he met Redcloak when he was "between evil schemes" and also suffering a minion shortage. He gave Redcloak and the leader of a group of lizardfolk each a chance to wow him with their evil plots, looking for "something that won't cure me of my insomnia," then killed the lizardfolk when his name was too long to remember. After sitting down to a cup of coffee with Redcloak, he listened to the goblin's pitch about the Gates plan and figured that was good for a lark.

Xykon's only emotional investment in the Plan is that it's a thing to do.

edited 1st Mar '15 7:35:21 AM by TobiasDrake

ninjas don't have to be chaotic. Political assassinations foe the sake of enforcing the law is not unheard of