The Order of the Stick

I dunno about "cute": those are two stone-cold killers who recognise and respect a fellow professional.

As for stone-cold killers go, Mr. Scruffy would be happy if he simply got fed fish by Belkar.

And that, my friends, is how they do it in Greysky City.

I mean, when they aren't murdering people in dark alleyways.

edited 28th Mar '15 3:02:51 AM by KarkatTheDalek

"When all else failed, she tried being reasonable."

And then Haley runs to get the rest of the Order to put her down again.

Oh, thank god, progress.

And pretty awesome progress at that.

Hey, look at that, I manged to come up with a correct plot-prediction for once.

Hooray, progress so this subplot can end already.

Well-played Haley. Why is Crystal so obsessed with her knife?

It's hers, and she lacks the mental facilities to process both "Mine! Take back!" and "Kill Haley!" at the same time.

edited 28th Mar '15 3:51:27 AM by Kayeka

Oh, "kill Haley" has always been an important goal to her, but that knife is a part of her, dammit. Higher order of importance.

Eh, I'd say that "Kill Haley" was/is more important to her. It's just that she can't prioritise properly, and was thus easily distracted.

Also, a thing that's slightly bothering me; Haley had been wearing those Boots of Speed since the beginning of the Empire of Blood arc (or even slightly before that, depending on what you consider the beginning). Up until now, had there really not been a point where Haste would have been useful?

edited 28th Mar '15 6:08:33 AM by Kayeka

The boots of speed in this case are a Call-Back to some of Haley's earliest comics — she refused to wear them for the longest time because they were green. She had them dyed in the last book, meaning she wasn't ashamed to use them any more, but Rich usually doesn't show magic item use unless it's relevant to the plot.

Also, that was so well played on Haley's part. When you can't beat your opponent, outsmart them.

Wait... she had them dyed. Why are they still lime green?

Dye doesn't apply to the magic glow. They are matching brown when inactive.

Also, since that dye-job, going turbo would only have separated her from the group with whom she was working tactically (well, as best as they do that). Which... wouldn't have been much help when 1) in a city, 2) in a pyramid, 3) in a canyon 4) in the middle of a baking hot, sandy desert 5) facing the particular brand of foes they got.

edited 28th Mar '15 7:08:39 AM by Euodiachloris

I'll just go with "magic effects aren't shown unless relevant to the plot", since haste doesn't just increase running speed, but also grants extra actions. I'm just going to assume she used the extra actions on anything other than movement, such as attacks.

IIRC, you can spend actions to move more.

Really now? I thought that, in addition to extra actions, it also increased your movement range.

Oh well, details.

Boots of Speed
As a free action, the wearer can click her boot heels together, enabling her to act as though affected by a haste spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The duration of the haste effect need not be consecutive rounds.

Haste
When making a full attack action, a hasted creature may make one extra attack with any weapon he is holding. The attack is made using the creature’s full base attack bonus, plus any modifiers appropriate to the situation. (This effect is not cumulative with similar effects, such as that provided by a weapon of speed, nor does it actually grant an extra action, so you can’t use it to cast a second spell or otherwise take an extra action in the round.)

A hasted creature gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Any condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses.

All of the hasted creature’s modes of movement (including land movement, burrow, climb, fly, and swim) increase by 30 feet, to a maximum of twice the subject’s normal speed using that form of movement.

edited 28th Mar '15 7:35:18 AM by Fighteer

I am a bit surprised to learn that the Wizard of Oz Shout-Out was actually part of the D&D rules. I thought that was just something Burlew had thrown in for the heck of it.

Wow. And most of us were so sure Haley wouldn't be able to convince Crystal to do that because the latter was too focused on killing Haley.

Nice to see she made some progress though. And in the end, she didn't need help like we thought.

The circumstances changed slightly from what we were saying. Haley wouldn't have been able to say all that if she was still pinned and could have kept running if she wanted to. Crystal's haste would have worn off slightly before Haley's would, though I doubt she was intelligent enough to consider that she couldn't catch Haley anymore.

I don't know if there's any Parks and Recreation fans in teh audience tonight, but Haley's words to Crystal reminded me of Jennifer Barkley's famous departure line: "You can trust me, because I don't care enough about you to lie."

I'm surprised that worked. I guess Crystal isn't completely stupid. I wonder where this is heading. Killing off Bozzok this early would just seem like an anti-climax and I doubt Rich is going to have Crystal team up with the Order. Are they going to stage a coup and force the Thieves' Guild to help them somehow?