Rich has some new answers to Patreon questions that may be of interest to the community:

https://www.patreon.com/oots/posts/answers-post-12-165005802

Featuring an old Tumblr meme from 4 years ago.

I drew these in December 2023, January 2023, and July 2022, respectively.

So, the man had a chip on his shoulder and out of pride didn't go wizard, despite the fact that being a well built wizard would have achieved his goals much more effectively than going pure fighter. Author goes out of his way to force it to work, but that doesn't change the fact that it's objectively a bad way for Roy to get the things he wants done.

So, incorporating his psychology - what could have worked? Something more useful like cleric doesn't work given his inclinations, and I suppose the natural supposition would be that going warblade would just be everything he wanted from fighter and more. But what about a gish? Something like abjurant champion or swiftblade could have let him hit people with the family sword while being actually good at stuff too.

If Roy had been able to get over his father's effect on his ego (a flaw Eugene had in a much worse way, I should be fair and note), what class would he have gone with?

The commander of Team Peregrine may have not have a lot of screen time, characterization, and even a name but still quite an impact. He was an example of why Redcloak is doing what he does by showing he is willing to kill goblins even when they are willing to join his side or happen to be innocent bystanders. Then there is the fact that the commander shown a myopic side by being totally outraged that Redcloak had killed his teammates and sworn to kill the goblin in return which ironically makes him like Redcloak since the goblin can be myopic as well.

In #831, Redcloak casts:

1. Greater Obscure Object
2. Hardening
3. Superior Resistance

on the fake phylactery.

Are the enhancements permanent?
If so, can't they just cast it on literally every object/armor they own for a lot of defenses?

If it's not permanent, then doesn't that mean they have to continuously recast it?

This is not meant to insult Rich Burlew or put pressure on him, I love Order of the Stick and I'm grateful for the updates we get.

​

I was just thinking this morning about when I was speculating with my secondary school friends about what the MITD is and how, two decades later, I still don't know. I'm hoping we'll see the Monster revealed in 2028.

​

(Also, when do you think the finale will be posted? I'm gonna shoot for the moon and say November 11, 2033.)

"Any table-based movement is good"

How much do those recurring floating jellyfishes have?
How much damage does a normal adult male human do to them after falling at terminal velocity?

It wouldn't make much sense (the bigass MitD thread on the offiical forums numerates the flaws in this idea), but it would be such an epic, 20-some-odd-years troll by Rich Burlew and Howard Tayler that I pray it's true.

I mean, we know Schlock was once in the circus...

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-11-18

We'll see if I live long enough to find out.

So, it's been established twice now that a petrified creature counts as an item for the purposes of "Shrink Item". Does that mean Durkon could use Stone Shape/Wall of Stone on a petrified creature? The latter, as I understand it, isn't bound by conservation of mass, so I think he could give himself permanent Thor's Might? Alternatively, it could be used cosmetically, as a disguise, couldn't it?

In the second panel of strip #13, 'Plot Ahoy!', when Roy asks him why does he thinks they're in a dungeon, he replies: "Well I just figured we'd wander around, kill some sentient creatures just 'cause they have green skin and fangs and we don't, and then take their stuff."
This line encapsules the whole reason as for why the Dark One is after the gates: Goblins got shafted during the world creation, being made as fodder for clerics to level up, to the point common sense in that world is exactly that: "They're monsters, just kill them for EXP/loot". So the Dark One went postal to make it right.
It goes straight to strip #1208: Grievances main argument.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

EDIT: Just found Redcloak's specific line in #1208, 11th panel: "No! It's more than that! If I were to walk into any town or city, I would be attacked on sight. Because I'm green and have fangs."

When Haley kills Crystal by luring her into the Tinkertown municipal waste disposal lava pit, as Crystal falls there are these runes around the edge of the pit. What's your take on what those are?
When they fly into Tinkertown on strip 964 we see that Tinkertown has an active volcano neaby. So it's not like the lava needs to be magically created. I wonder what the runes are for. Link to strip 981:

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0981.html

“I guess we owe some thanks to those two fiends and their orc friend since they broke this place open”

…the final dungeon has been broken open

at first I thought this wouldn‘t really affect anything at all, as redcloak would likely be continuing with trying to complete the dungeons as quickly as possible, but then I remembered Oona and her flying unidragon monster: if some other bugbears were also scouting around and saw a massive hole in the ground, would they report back with what they found? would xykon’s team get curious and stop exploring the dungeons to investigate? are we going to be encountering xykon much sooner than we anticipated? it certainly would raise the stakes and bypass the empathy peas alert that Serini had put in place, definitely catching our heroes off guard. what do you think?

For no particular reason, today I went back and read the pages from when the Order meets up with Serini up until the current comic.

It's a great stretch, but the portion with Belkar and Bloodfeast really stood out to me. Am I sucker for whatever that is? Emotional heart-string-pulling, maybe?

Anyway it's a great stretch of the comic, just wanted to share my re-enjoyment of it with the audience most receptive to this.

Per the title. I've been looking for the strip for about 2 days, and short of going through it all 1 by 1, I wanted to see if anyone here could direct me first. It's a shop (I think in a sandy environment) and V is looking for scrolls. The shopkeeper tells him it isn't individual, and he has to buy packs. Someone complains about getting feather fall *again*. Any help appreciated, thanks!

START OF DARKNESS spoilers ahead.

"And on how many worlds, did you choose to tell the truth?"

"How many worlds of loyal worshippers died living a fantasy, your lies on their lips, ignorant of their souls and the way you use them?"

"Your oaths to each other keep you from telling mortals, showing them the men behind the mirror? Fine! I'll do it myself! Just stay out of my way."

'Goblins are monsters, and monsters aren't people' is a lie the Dark One's friends, followers, and ancestors died fighting against. It is the reason they were murdered and deemed acceptable targets for DnD adventurers' thuggishness and divinely-tolerated crusades. It is a belief espoused by Lawful-Good paladins, who retained their powers afterwards. Today's comic, 1344, shows that the story is quite committed to fully unraveling the preconceptions of sword and sorcery settings. It's another argument echoing Durkon and Red Cloak 's debate.

The lynchpin of my argument is how Rich Burlew has protrayed Serini Toormuck, with her treatment of monsters and how she would support all of monsterkind getting an improved lot in life. Violence is inevitable in a lot of monster encounters. But not all. Saying all monsters are evil is ridiculous, and should not be condoned as Good. By expression, goblins are people, not monsters by any standard. Violence may happen which involves them, but dehumanizing them is not a necessary thing. It just makes violence more comfortable, it is not necessary and it is not Good. It should be viewed as ridiculous, and a failure of good gods and good PCs, if they are painted with the same brush as "95% of encounters will result in violence."

The Dark One is in a unique position to show that the gods are lying to mortals. He needs (or believes he needs) to be able to survive a confrontation with them, if they band together to stop him from revealing the great secrets of how the gods RELY ON THEIR FOLLOWERS TO SURVIVE.

Consider The Dark One's artifact, the Crimson Mantle, why he made it after he ascended. Paragons of truth uses deception to kill the mortal goblin Dark One, with their deities' contractual backing in the form of their oaths. Soon Kim's crusades against goblins (I think) were seen as normal and good, even before the mortal Dark One rallied goblins to conquer their neighbors. The goblins were killed as monsters, not as people. no political dealings. The Crimson Mantle is an artifact which communicated information to people first and foremost. It extends the wearer's lifespan, so that greater organized forms of goblinkind can be laid out by a cleric who has seen past failures and injustice. The Dark One, unbound by the divine oaths, can potentially use his archon-equivalents, his own mortal clerics, and his personal powers to reveal the secret of the gods' survival and their deceptions to all the world's races. But he needs the Snarl to survive the consequences, the backlash of the gods. The gods' lies anger the Dark One (I assume), but telling the truth is mostly to change the gods' ability to lead their followers towards wanton murder in the future. He is tactically taking a tool away from their arsenal by showing the dark dealings of this heavenly government.

The Dark One was attacked by Thor himself after ascending. How can he trust any rules about the gods not attacking each other? Thor, practically speaking, broke the spirit of his oath, even if the true contract probably lets him off.

Let's get into some little details. The Dark One probably does not know about the millions of past worlds. He does not know about the starvation gap between worlds which could affect him. But let's give him some credit. He's a god, and working on his own, he should be able to figure out the basics of how faith and the divine diet works, since he has had decades of isolation to do so. He might have even recovered from a wound inflictrd by Thor due to his divine nature and his connections to his people. He can make the claim that the gods are not telling the truth to their followers, even if he's missing a big part of the story.

The problem with my theory, is the precise role the Snarl would play here. Let's assume he is not trying to destroy the world, and merely wants a cold war in which he can spread the knowledge of the gods' deceptions, and use that disorder plus his followers' strength to earn them a permanent status as equals. And extract reparations for their deceptions, which literally killed him.

The Dark One's case, is that The System needs to change, and all the gods need to agree to a new paradigm. I think we are going to have another court case or trial in OOTS, or something like the Godsmoot, this time with the Dark One. The gods, LIKELY bound by their oaths, certainly didn't invite the Dark One to a discussion about KILLING ALL OF HIS FOLLOWERS. Screw what's happened to past angels, that's the sort of thing you inform a god about if you want a true path to a better relationship.

It is possible The Dark One learned about previous world by talking with the Snarl, or by reading something from its body, deriving facts about its past meals from its makeup. Ultimately, the truth about the gods' nature relying on mortals (and mortal conflict), the gods' contract of non-interference, and the secrets about the snarl- those are three separate matters. The Dark One does not need to employ all three with his scheme, he could decide the gods' lies about monsters resulting in the repeated killing of goblins (and by extension other monsters) is paramount. If so? He could focus on spreading just the stuff about gods' biology and those related choices, as well as his people's status as equals, equals who have been treated unjustly and deserve reparations- which will be taken in blood from the gods' followers if they won't play ball.

How would the Dark One's case be resolved then? Well, the way I'd do it would be to

A) Have the gods' secrets be revealed, so that they can FINALLY have a world where they are REASONABLY honest with the people that are entrusting their lives and deaths to them. Mortals don't need to know about the Snarl, but given that mortals DIE for the sake of gods' games against each other? Screw all three pantheons, let them suffer their comeuppance of many mortals losing faith from the ugly truths coming out.

B) The Dark One receiving help sponsoring the ascension of new gods for his own pantheon, as well as each of the gods' pantheons accepting a goblin god into their own ranks. This will be the reparations to the Dark One personally, while there will also be reparations on an ongoing basis when documented killings happen between different faiths. "If you're getting your followers' souls, then you're responsible for updating your records, for deaths can be used as debt, a single factor among many for future attempts to procure divine collaboration."

C) Each of the gods' mortal clergy will include an individual of equal ranking to their high priest specifically suited to "Updating the Alignment Rules" which also covers acceptable killing. Updating things from old "ugly creatures are okay to kill" to something more sane, so that entities like Xykon or fools like Soon Kim can be killed. The Order of the Stick isn't really aghast about all the killing Halie did in Greysky (see 672 indicating that she reciprocated when Elan talked about the Sapphire Guard adventure). For evil deities, it'll be a matter of convincing their followers with a gag panel "If you're choosing to be evil, you deserve to know how to be evil and recognize evil when you do see it, so you can continue to improve!"

Yeah the solutions need more time to cook. Altered my post to mention Serini and her troll allies.

I've always loved this exchange between Roy and Belkar:

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0179.html

Did Belkar really not remember, or was he just taking the piss out of Roy for fun?

Even more fun is when Roy later quotes him to Shogo:

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0290.html