While I wouldn't say that this is a Deus ex Machina necessarily — Psimax is so powerful that there's no way that anyone could reasonably expect our Kin/Minmax/Forgath to beat him without help — it does seem a bit narratively unsound to throw invincible villains at your characters so that someone else can beat them while your characters lie there, helpless.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yeah, those three are dead. Not that that will keep them down overly long in this pocket dimension.
You are not alone.But they still escape. I rather hope, for the sake of the people trapped in the Maze, that Psimax ends up Hoist by His Own Petard in some way here, removing his threat permanently. That does seem to be the traditional way for a villain like him to go.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Isn't it a little optimistic for these Kins to be assuming they can figure out a way to hack their universe within a single run of the maze? I mean, once the maze resets, they'll forget they ever had this alliance; so they need to at least figure out how to retain their memories before this single run of the maze ends.
I'm also somewhat concerned about what happened to their Minmaxes and Forgaths. (That shoulder spider is still adorable though.)
(Did the healing potion regenerate Kin's tail? It's hard to tell. Too many tails in every panel.)
edited 17th May '13 6:27:37 AM by ashnazg
It wouldn't regenerate by the standard healing rules; you'd need a regeneration spell to restore lost limbs.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"She lacks the tail and is hanging onto the red one's.
>I'm also somewhat concerned about what happened to their Minmaxes and Forgaths. (That shoulder spider is still adorable though.)
My theory is that they entered the maze alone or their guys got killed in the maze and they weren't too friendly (Psimax still being unique in actually slaughtering his companions) or these Kins being more harsh/pragmatic: the probably not very changing piece of backstory is that they are there on a big quest from their tribe, but these gals are willing to ditch it.
edited 17th May '13 7:32:30 AM by Adannor
Shoulder spider Kin is probably a sorcerer or mage and that's her familiar.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"All things being equal for every run through the maze with the exception of new entrants, it's possible that these three Kins always team up, always make this plan, and it is only now that they got far enough to actually possibly actualize it thanks to Psimax making that shortcut to the treasure room.
Y'know, maybe Psimax has a point about this place being hell.
edited 17th May '13 11:40:44 AM by KnownUnknown
Oh, it is most definitely a kind of Hell. I sympathize with Psimax for wanting to destroy it, but not for doing so in a way that would presumably result in the oblivion of everyone in the Maze with him. If there were a way to make it so that everyone could exit and then the Maze be destroyed, that would be the best possible outcome.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The way the Maze works, everyone eventually wins, right? Each time the winning group gets out and everyone else gets reset, so eventually everyone makes it through, only remembering the time they succeeded. That doesn't sound so bad.
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Those little pouches read wizard spell components to me, and from Blue Kin's comment she's got the Int for it.
The Maze continually adds competitors from other realities so that the same total number of groups enters each time. At least that's what I picked up. The game is unending, even if the participation of any particular group is theoretically finite.
Also, I thought those looked like spell component pouches as well.
edited 17th May '13 1:08:16 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"^^ Not necessarily. Characters reset every time, with no knowledge of how they went through the maze or what they've done - so all things being equal they would naturally make the same run every time. The only two things that would cause deviation from that run are either their own self conscious thinking upon knowing how often they've failed, or interactions with other characters that either just entered and became new variables or those that ultimately left the maze and thus weren't around to be variables any more.
So, those killed by the intervention of other groups will ultimately deviate and go in different directions, and thus possibly solve the maze themselves. Those killed by traps or their own ineptitude are pretty much screwed unless something forces them to change. Even our heroes: Psimax casually points out that our heroes always (or at least constantly) die in the same place. They only reason they didn't this time is because they came across Psimax at that point and he caused them to do things differently, and the main reason they got as far as they did is because Psimax' Oblivion holes changed the format of the maze.
As a far worse off example, remember that group killed by advancing spike wall early in the run? The only reason they even figured the thing out (far too late) was because our group figured it out and their Kin had a brief moment of confused disbelief about it. That means they wouldn't figure it out on their own and need the input of another group to do so, and as a result it's possible that they are doomed to constantly die at that point until the end of time. If another group enters that trap and neither can figure it out, and both went straight there after starting without running into other variables, they're doomed forever.
It's like if you were Sisyphus, but every time the boulder fell off the mountain you bumped your head and forgot it was impossible to succeed.
edited 17th May '13 3:14:25 PM by KnownUnknown

And apparently it's the alternate Kins banding together to help our Kin. Huh. Nice touch, that, although I wonder how exactly they got up there.