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Order of the Stick


Rapier

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

(Hijacking the thread momentarily to expound on Kristopher's point...)

 

Pretty much all the 'demonology' of the Church is based primarily upon 'demonizing' various pagan gods. If you trace most 'demons' back to their root cultures, they were gods (some were even quite benevolent!), not demons. The Church 'demonized' them as a PR move to get their followers motivated to go invade their country and take it over - so the Church could move in and have more follwers.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

der.. yeah. That. :doi:

 

Wow - I've made some typos in my day, but I think that's an all time winner.

 

You know, Neitzsche's writings, Ancient religions. Practically the same thing!

 

*just crawls back under his rock now*

(I'd rep you for correcting that colossal mistake, but I can't yet)

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

Thinking one' date=' typing the other. It doesn't help that I had to find my copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra last week to look up something. That word must have been higher up on the stack.[/quote']

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster

 

Same dude.

 

Please, I didn't mean to cause the sidetrack. Back to the OotS.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

(Except of course that the references to Lucifer' date=' the serpent, and Satan in the Hebrew Bible are all unrelated until the later Christian combination of the concepts into one uberbad. :D )[/quote']

 

I always found it amusing that in the Book of Job, he's basically God's lawyer. :eg:

 

JG

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

And are thus generally poor storytelling.

 

Yes. It's still a GM / writer railroading the characters. I'm not taking the position "V would never do that"; I'm annoyed to see a weak sequence in Rich's generally strong story.

 

It doesn't bother me as much, but then, I honestly think some of Rich's weakest storytelling is better than some of the #$#$ Marvel raves about and makes money off of, so I might be just so grateful to him for the entertainment that I forgive the slips more easily :)

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

I honestly think some of Rich's weakest storytelling is better than some of the #$#$ Marvel raves about and makes money off of

 

And of course I 100% agree with this. :)

 

Actually, I was reading some of my 1970s-80s back issues recently, digging through my white boxes. It was another reminder that some of the beloved comics of my youth were really, deeply bad. ;)

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

Hmm.... I like this development, which rings true. The deal with the Devil-Committee is incidental. The reason that it is as innocuous as can be imagined is that they intend to put the alternative plot before Vaarsuvius at the end.

To that end, it is necessary that the alternative they offer V. is one that will work, and that is why the Committee goes out of its way to fill in the holes. Their point is very specifically that there is an alternative to their deal. All Varsuvius has to do is admit his/her mistakes. There can be as little deception involved here as possible, because the full magnitude of the victory lies in Vaarsuvius being fully conscious of taking the decision for the "wrong reasons," and we are shown that, in the end, it is the "wrong reasons" that motivate the decision.

 

The question is where the decision leads Vaarsuvius. I think that the real turning point still lies ahead.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

Okay, I don't like the splitting of the party and multiple storylines, but *this* has me interested! V's obsession with magic as the Be All End All drove [insert gender-nonspecific word here] to make the "deal with the devil" to save [insert gender-nonspecific word here] spouse and children. I want to see where it leads!! :thumbup:

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

The story is still holding my interest but its appeal has definitely lower substantially since the group was split up after the events in Azure City. I long for the day that the OotS is back together again as it was of old.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

I personally think there will be a new OotS. The original party will cease to be. V will become an antagonist. Belkar will die and Haley will resign herself to the thieves guild. Roy will be back though, I think, and a new party will emerge.

 

Of course, I have been magnificently wrong before.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

Okay' date=' I don't like the splitting of the party and multiple storylines, but *this* has me interested! V's obsession with magic as the Be All End All drove [insert gender-nonspecific word here'] to make the "deal with the devil" to save [insert gender-nonspecific word here] spouse and children. I want to see where it leads!! :thumbup:

 

Given the barely controlled power V's tapping, plus the stricture (no divine magic)...

 

Bad end, almost for sure.

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

It ocurrs to me that with that much power, V might be able to take care of the Mother Dragon by...

 

 

restoring her Son. Or would the "some restrictions may apply" keep him from doing that? IIRC he can't do anything that would be "divine magic" -- or words to that effect.

 

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

He can't do a resurrection, but he might be able to do a little necromancy of his own. Summon the ghost, or something.

 

I just don't think he'll go that route.

 

While *he* can't do a resurrection, he likely could charm/coerce someone *else* who can... :sneaky:

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Re: Order of the Stick

 

Depends on whether the Wish spell exists in this setting. :D

 

JG

 

Wish and Limited Wish have been referenced.

 

The young dragon could not be resurrected because the body was gone. A Wish might be able to recover the body (probably as a soggy pile of dust.) Once Resurrection as an option is on the table, it won't be necessary to coerce anyone - even if the dragon can't find someone willing to do it on her own, Vaarsuvius has enough power to bargain for it.

 

I agree with Oddhat though - the temptation is a bit weak. The alternative is too risky compared to seizing the power to solve the situation for herself. But if we accept that the main motivation was pride, rather than the disinterested calculation of the best course for saving her family, maybe that counts as an alignment change anyway.

 

And as against Oddhat's point - trusting three archfiends is pretty dangerous too.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Inevitable palindromedary tagline

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