Order of the Stick

[Hermit]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Well, V gets it.... finally gets it.

 

And maybe 'getting it' as well

[Nevelon]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I'm sorry, I call malarki. Malarkey?

 

 

First, the spell was never originally described as being that powerful. Second, even the updated description still shouldn't have allowed it to kill the non-dragon blood descendants (i.e. non-bastard children I guess) of those who had previously mated with a Draketooth. They don't "share blood" in any sense that I find convincing.

 

By my estimation, the spell apparently extended as far as unrelated aunts and uncles via their non-dragon blood children. Wow.

 

 

 

OK, here is what we have as a description:

Every living creature that directly shares your bloodline is dead.

Every living creature that is directly related to any of *those* creatures is also dead.

Anyone who could possibly make a claim to be part of your family is now gone.

 

The Draketooth clan is covered under the first line. If they had a kid with some random person, that child is defiantly part of the clan, and covered under the first line. Now the child's non-clan parent, his aunts, uncles, non-clan grandparents, etc, could be covered by the second line. The question is how far out you want to stretch the "directly" But if a Draketooth woman had a one-night stand and got pregnant, some unsuspecting bloke just got offed by the familcide; there is no way the father is going to dodge the wording of the second line. Half/step siblings might be covered. Part of the problem is that the only information we have on the spell is smack talk during the fight, but not the text of the spell in a rules-like format. This makes it impossible to figure out exactly how far it stretches.

 

 

[SteveZilla]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Order of the Stick' date=' Special Edition. Now Rich can show us the OotS saga as he always envisioned it.[/quote']

 

Order of the Stick' date=' Special Edition. Now Rich can show us the OotS saga as he always envisioned it.[/quote']

 

You should go back and put several edits in your post, and a 'reason' for each one, y'know, because people clearly didin't understand it right the first time.

 

 

This site only tracks the very last edit time & reason, iirc.

[Christopher]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I think that means V now officially killed more innocent beings than Belkar.

 

I'm sorry, I call malarki. Malarkey?

 

 

First, the spell was never originally described as being that powerful. Second, even the updated description still shouldn't have allowed it to kill the non-dragon blood descendants (i.e. non-bastard children I guess) of those who had previously mated with a Draketooth. They don't "share blood" in any sense that I find convincing.

 

By my estimation, the spell apparently extended as far as unrelated aunts and uncles via their non-dragon blood children. Wow.

I was wondering about that too. I here I think is how it works:

It kills entire bloodlines. At first it took the bloodline of the Dragon itself - her direct brothers, sisters and the darkentooth family (wich all shared a bloodline with the Dragon)

Then it took every person it just killed, looked who the other parents where - and killed their bloodline as well. (here is where Tarquins wife was)

Now it again checkes what other bloodlines are there and kills those too (this is where tarquins potential son would have been).

It hadn't gone farther (like eleminating Tarquins bloodline as well).

 

Frankly I think that spell is overkill (pun intended). The original idea is to prevent people from seeking revenge. But all it does is killing more people and thus increasing the amount of persons who could seek revenge (if Tarquin would have looked into his wifes dead via magic, he would have landed at V).

this makes me wonder: The scrying atempt when they departed the wrong gate location, could this have been an atempt to find V?

 

This of course means that we now know for sure that Hailey is not a Drakentooth.

[Cygnia]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Course, we don't know who the original red-head (the human half of the initial pairing) was. But it's probably not a Starshine (unless Ian goes home to find Ivy dead by "mysterious circumstances" too).

[Enforcer84]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Course' date=' we don't know who the original red-head (the human half of the initial pairing) was. But it's probably not a Starshine (unless Ian goes home to find Ivy dead by "mysterious circumstances" too).[/quote']

 

Wouldn't that kill Haley too?

[Greywind]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I wonder if V's partner was related to them.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I wonder if V's partner was related to them.

 

potentially? But...

Rich doesn't strike me as a dick. And considering how V is taking the repercussions of his actions...I doubt he'd pile it on.

But I've been wrong before.

[Cygnia]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

If that was the case, either V's ex-mate or their (adopted) kids would have keeled over right after the Familicide spell left V's mouth.

[James Gillen]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

True.

 

JG

[Manic Typist]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I think that means V now officially killed more innocent beings than Belkar.

 

 

.... wow, I seriously hope that Belkar finds out and becomes insanely jealous. I would love that storyline.

 

As an aside, good reasoning by all.

 

I think that spell, however, is a terrible idea as just demonstrated. It kills so many people, randomly, that it would draw in tons of revenge seekers. Also, I can see lots of unaffected parties going after the caster just because that individual is obviously insanely powerful and dangerous, and willing to use it to kill indiscriminately, and thus needs to be eliminated.

[Christopher]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I think that spell' date=' however, is a terrible idea as just demonstrated. It kills so many people, randomly, that it would draw in tons of revenge seekers. Also, I can see lots of unaffected parties going after the caster just because that individual is obviously insanely powerful and dangerous, and willing to use it to kill indiscriminately, and thus needs to be eliminated.[/quote']

Unless of course, you take it as a deterrent. "If you go after me, I use it on you too!". Kind of like being the only one who has the Atom bomb.

 

It was orginally the epic spell of Necromancer, wich would always have that power level.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I understand. But part of the problem with having the bomb is that it makes everyone afraid enough of you to want to see you fall. And unlike an atom bomb, you're not a nation but a single individual who can probably only cast that spell once until you have more time to prepare it.

 

So, you paint a big target on your back. You might be a very dangerous opponent, but nonetheless, you still have a target on your back that everyone wants to hit, for one reason or another.

[casualplayer]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

With as much vague and indeterminate ancestry as floats around fantasy I would be reluctant to use that spell in fear of suddenly finding out I just hexed Grandpa.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

... And thus yourself?

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

.... wow, I seriously hope that Belkar finds out and becomes insanely jealous. I would love that storyline.

 

As an aside, good reasoning by all.

 

I think that spell, however, is a terrible idea as just demonstrated. It kills so many people, randomly, that it would draw in tons of revenge seekers. Also, I can see lots of unaffected parties going after the caster just because that individual is obviously insanely powerful and dangerous, and willing to use it to kill indiscriminately, and thus needs to be eliminated.

 

Given V's state of mind at the time, and hisher habitation by three epic level evil spirits, I suspect (s)he wouldn't have paused to work out all the effects in advance. V is intelligent, but not wise. (S)He's smart enough to work out how to cast the spell and lacks the wisdom to assess the potential implications.

[casualplayer]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

... And thus yourself?

 

Well, if Luke used it on Vader, boy, would his face be red.

[Christopher]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

I understand. But part of the problem with having the bomb is that it makes everyone afraid enough of you to want to see you fall. And unlike an atom bomb, you're not a nation but a single individual who can probably only cast that spell once until you have more time to prepare it.

 

So, you paint a big target on your back. You might be a very dangerous opponent, but nonetheless, you still have a target on your back that everyone wants to hit, for one reason or another.

The real caster was somethign better than a nation: Epic level necromancer, wich means the equivalent of a nations fighting power (in the form of undead minions) plus whatever her normal minions could muster.

99.9% of all possible adversaries will fail with even detecting the work of a spell (unless they witnessed it), yet alone mustering the resources to have a sufficiently strong Clairsentience Spell cast to find her. It's the remaining 0.1% that may cause you trouble, but might still be of a to low level to anoy anybody epic level.

 

And I just had an idea:

What if the one Scrying on them near the gate, was Tarquin (or somebody he hired)? He could have known all along who killed his wife, but kept silent because he wanted to "see how it turns out". So V might be in for some revenge, T-Style. Asuming she doesn't die yet (or at least not permanently) from tht trap....

[Zeropoint]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Isn't everyone related to everyone somehow? Shouldn't this spell have killed, well, everyone? Or, does it stop propagating across family lines when it gets to links involving people who are already dead?

[Christopher]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Isn't everyone related to everyone somehow? Shouldn't this spell have killed' date=' well, everyone? Or, does it stop propagating across family lines when it gets to links involving people who are already dead?[/quote']

No, it stops after two links. We already had that:

First it terminated the Dragons bloodline. Here were the Drakentooths

Then it took everyone it just killed, looked who the other parents was and killed thier bloodline as well. Here is where Tarquisn wife and here family was.

Then it agains looks who the otehr parent was, and killed it too.

 

People who where already dead would be ignored of course, but that only altered how far "up" the family tree the spell would go to determine wher the bloodlines ends. Since there are only 2-5 generation of humans in one bloodline alive at a time, this wasn't a total genocid on humnaity but it was still a LOT of people V has killed.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Here is where Tarquisn wife and here family was.

 

Are you making an assumption about how Tarquin's wife died? IIRC, he described her death as "Mysterious circumstances," which I interpreted to mean "I killed her without leaving any evidence, because I'm evil that way." Did I miss something in the comic itself that indicates that she was part of the Draketooth family and was killed by V's epic spell?

[Enforcer84]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Are you making an assumption about how Tarquin's wife died? IIRC' date=' he described her death as "Mysterious circumstances," which I interpreted to mean "I killed her without leaving any evidence, because I'm evil that way." Did I miss something in the comic itself that indicates that she was part of the Draketooth family and was killed by V's epic spell?[/quote']

 

V mentions it himself.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

Ah, OK. I hadn't read the latest one yet. Ne'ermind.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

The real caster was somethign better than a nation: Epic level necromancer, wich means the equivalent of a nations fighting power (in the form of undead minions) plus whatever her normal minions could muster.

99.9% of all possible adversaries will fail with even detecting the work of a spell (unless they witnessed it), yet alone mustering the resources to have a sufficiently strong Clairsentience Spell cast to find her. It's the remaining 0.1% that may cause you trouble, but might still be of a to low level to anoy anybody epic level.

 

 

My counterpoint- that Epic Level Necromancer was dead. Not undead. Someone killed her dead.

[Christopher]

Re: Order of the Stick

 

My counterpoint- that Epic Level Necromancer was dead. Not undead. Someone killed her dead.

As will be Tarquin some day. But the time until then was a blast.

 

And with necormancy in the room, we don't know how longs she lived (or un-lived). She could have been a lich for a thousand years before finally meeting her end.