4681

I think the DDOS attacks are taken care of or over. I read somewhere that the site or server was in the middle of being updated when the attacks started, and it messed things up pretty badly. I assume that’s the reason for the “new” design.

4682

Those of you who said that might happen all get gold (or electrum, your choice) stars.

4683

Erfworld?

And people think I have bad taste in webcomics…

I mean, I do. But there are some lines even I won’t cross.

(Don’t click on that link. Seriously.)

4684

Ugh. Yeah, I’m glad I looked at the link, I’ve banned that bullshit from my brain.

4685

I stayed with that comic at least a year after I should have burned my monitor. It annoys me that the link is sitting there, just two posts above this one.

4686

I don’t get it. What’s so distasteful or bad about that? I mean, it’s not particularly funny, but that’s the case with about 95% of “comic” stuff on the internet.

What am I missing, or is it just that it is really not funny?

4687

I guess if you just look at a single comic from Tim, you might think “this is okay, it’s not terrible art and it’s not so bad?” but there is a lot going on here, at least for me. First, Tim is sort of a douche, but that’s not really the main issue (though it’s probably the root of all the issues). The original comic featured a serialized story that he recently ret-con’d with a retarded time travel / world ending event. Now, before he did taht the WORST comics in my book where the ones that he took a break from the characters and focused instead on a generic group of gamers who invariably killed one another by the end of the 4th panel. It was sort of dumb the first time, and just got worse every time he forced them down our throats. The actual character arc/story he was doing was decent, not super funny (very often, especially as time wore on but I’ll admit that might be more my changing tastes than his quality control), but it was better than these fucking four color gamer stereo-types, and especially that absolutely retarded chef character that made no fucking sense at all to me.

But then he ret-con’d the entire story, and made the strip focus entirely (as far as I know, I haven’t been back since last year or early this year) on those horrible gaming characters, giving them “more personality” which he’s not even really capable of doing. It’s just a series of one-shot comics focused on whatever Tim’s into at the moment, no on-going story stuff or anything, which would be fine but it’s not even as entertaining as Garfield. So now the characters I read about for years are I guess gone like they never existed, which is lame but whatever, and now the strip has remained not funny, and gotten worse (again, could be my own tastes changing), and I feel like his petulant responses to his so-called “fans” is enough of a slap in the face that I deleted the book mark in disgust and never went back. Fuck that guy.

4688

CAD is pretty much the antichrist of storytelling narrative.

4689

Just so that a perfectly good OotS thread doesn’t get too derailed by anti-CAD-ism, I provide the following link to a Qt3 thread on CAD’s terribleness as an alternative:

4690

Ahhh, ok. The linked comic was literally the first time I’ve ever seen this comic, so I indeed had no idea what was going on.

4691

Tin Wisdom, you’re a saint. And your post in that thread should be the CAD FAQ for all those wondering, “Why should I care?”

4692

I have no compelling argument against that assertion.

Back on topic, I put down my 1.3 bitcoins that the Xykon that we see in the last panel is in fact an illusion/hallucination caused by the unidentified runes in the corridor that they blew off in panel 5.

4693

Can’t be. Never pays off in the same strip. Or rather, the answer is never there in the same strip. My bet is some kind of anti-evil last-ditch defense that helps out the reduced party in some circumstance.

4694

Yeah, I’m betting those glyphs are some kind of wards against undead or … even better: spell casting (remember - Roy told Elan not to sing, which iirc is classified as a spell-like ability), which would mean Xykon and Redcloak are going to be hurting real soon should that be true.

Of course, I’m probably horribly off-base, but that’s half the fun :)

4695

Either that or it’s like 20,000 glyphs of warding with permanence and contingency “someone laughs with an evil muhahahahaha”.

4696

Hmmm… Girard seemed to be more concerned about authority types than evil types. He seemed to think his gate was more in danger from Soon than any evil villain. So, his last ditch effort probably wouldn’t be something to nullify his forte (illusion spells) while keeping the “real” enemy’s advantages intact (fighting ability, divine skillsets).

So, a super powerful and subtle illusion that will show the most perfect thing to make somebody run away from the gate strikes me as more likely.

Or, it could just be Xyklon. Why not? We’ve known he’s been on his way for a while now.

4697

I don’t buy it. Both the Order and the Guild had to work hard to get in there and both went in through the top and are on-guard against each other – I just don’t see Xykon walking in through an alternate entrance and meeting them in the middle of the place without them knowing.

Although, Xykon did have the halfling’s diary, and perhaps Xykon himself is the little “project” that Tarquin had going on in the city.

4698

#886 Victory Comes from Within

4699

Wondering where the twist is going to show up, but it’ll probably a good one whenever it does.

4700

I will take this opportunity to do a (very rare) victory dance. Watch the footwork on the second-to-last turn, it’s pretty fancy.