The Order of the Stick

Oh man, Elan is starting a pantheon. That's awesome.

I do like his conflict-resolution methods, and that he was concerned for the happiness of even the orcs.

(Also "I was beginning to think that the people who built that tunnel had absolutely no idea where it was going..." rofl)

I think if this keeps up Durkon's gonna just eat Elan.

This comic kinda does bring attention to the bizarre logical implications of having real, physical gods running about and making their presence overtly and undeniably known but still having a large variety of religions.

It was jokily implied that Banjo could actually become part of the Norse Pantheon. He'd have to gain enough worshipers, though.

HAH!

That was actually a really good idea, too....

I like that Elan's Elan-ness led to successful trade XD

Entrusting such an important mission to ordinary birds with only the communication spell cast on them was a pretty silly mistake for V for the dangers along the way if nothing else, although with those bags under her (yes, I am saying her) eyes I can't blame her, and there were three of them. Surely a wizard of her level has some long-duration defensive buff?

V didn't consider the idea that the three bodies would be hungry, and hunger is the second-most powerful force in the universe.

"Forget the parrots, they're completely irrelevant!" Heh.

This is an interesting twist. I wonder if the Oracle is powerful enough to pierce through the Cloister spell, and therefore, be completely up to date on all the irony. In which case, he'll probably taunt the three with it, and also with the fact that they won't be able to remember what he's told them, but Haley will pull off a Note to Self (although given the way this comic's been going, I wouldn't be surprised if somehow she horribly misinterprets the note).

As nice as it'd be to get Roy back though, I can't help but think the Oracle would be too apathetic to pull it off. Or Belkar threatens him with violence, and they have to rest for a day so he can get the spell...and then plot complication-larity ensues.

Wait! What if he pulls it off, but Roy's in a heroic BSOD because he was pulled out of Heaven!? What'll they do with the Roybot?

As far as I understand, Roy has been watching Haley and Belkar the whole time, even if his spirit is back in the Bubbly Clouds area. So, no, he's just as privy to it as we are.

@raekuul: I meant the oracle. Although it seems like Roy hasn't been paying attention◊ so I guess he's not up to date on -all- the irony, either.

Also: ahh, it's those guys again! I love that they remember, but Haley doesn't XD and that looks like the most delicious golem -ever-. mmm...

I wonder if the Oracle can resurrect Roy, and if Belkar is going to kill the Oracle this time.

Well damn, I wasn't expecting ''that'' answer to the prophecy. Go Belkar! Probably should've waited until after their three questions though.

Hopefully, the Oracle foresaw this and came up with some sort of contingency to get resurrected. I mean, he seems to make a lot of money, he could easily have a cleric on retainer to rez him. Even if he doesn't have a particular plan, sooner or later another group of adventurers will seek him out, find out that he's dead, and resurrect him.

So I don't think the Oracle's permanently out of commission, or even out of commission for very long. Although he might not be in the strip any more if he only gets resurrected after they leave.

Still...good one, Belkar. I guess the Oracle's tower doesn't count as an urban area, then.

No, wait, I take that back.

I went to add it to CMOA but someone already did. =/

Now THAT I wasn't expecting. Way to go, oracle.

Just as planned.

Would've been a lot smarter to point out the kobold village to Belkar before he had a chance to stab you, though.

brickman wrote:

I don't think he can change future like that. Besides, what were the effects of the Mark of Justice again? I guess the Oracle thought it was worth it.

It makes him sicker and sicker until he's unable to hurt anyone.

(linky)

Given, well, logic in general, I assumed that "unable to hurt anyone" was a fancy way of saying "dead", but maybe not.

Hard to say how it will turn out. The Oracle implied that Belkar is going to die, so maybe he'll do a heroic death before he gets too sick. That isn't the funniest way for him to go out, but I'm racking my brains trying to come up with a meaningful death for him.

You know, if you think about it, this is PRECISELY what the mark of justice was intended to punish him for and prevent him from continuing—spontaneous, on-a-whim murdering of innocents (yes, the oracle was an innocent, even if s/he was an unlikable one). So far we've seen plenty of him dancing around problems that the curse unintentionally provided him by preventing self-defence, but this was exactly what it was for, and he walked right into it.

Interestingly, the oracle is, to my count, only the second innocent killed by Belkar since he got that mark, which is several hundred strips ago (the first, of course, being that guy with the cart he killed a little while ago). So it's actually worked pretty well.

Well, that's one way of incapacitating someone, though it's still a bit of a letdown. Also, I'm amazed that, to my knowledge, there was not actually any speculation about what the command word was. I think everyone forgot to. Just as well, anyone who got that one right would obviously be cheating.

You know, it honestly never occurred to me that "sick" meant literally throwing up. Seems pretty effective though.

I felt sorry for Celia, even though most people probably think she deserved that.

Now they have to find a cleric to de-curse Belkar?

stm177 wrote:

So the oracle knew he was going to be killed by Belkar, and took the pre-emptive maneuver of making sure there was a village around him when he did it.

Since the oracle knew it was going to happen, and since we have manifest proof that his visions don't constrict his free will in such a way that he cannot respond to them, and since people regularly come and give him huge sacks of gold, there's a good chance he has a cleric on standby to resurrect him (and, again, there's probably a chance that some cleric will come by seeking advice and rez the oracle himself).

But given all this, he could probably have prevented Belkar from killing him in the first place. So therefore Belkar's curse getting activated must have been a part of some greater plan - if not for his benefit personally, then for some game Tiamat's running.

I don't really have anywhere else to take this line of thought, other than the oracle standing on top of a tall, thin skyscraper staring across the horizon at...who? That...is the question.

(wooo post 100~)