May 27, 2015: The Ties That Bind

[JustRight]

A gameboard - - the statues are the game pieces - - the captured adventurers get to animate the pieces through the ropes. Now waiting for the observer to trundle in to watch / run the game. Perhaps if you win you get released?

[Dannon]

... can we call them the GAP since they're tolerating Minmax now? "GAP+M?"

I vote for Goblins Including Minmax Party.

[Krulle]

GIMP.. They're already bound... :p

[thesilence]

We anticipate with some delight a character describing the Goblinsverse version of chess, and observing that this trap room seems to be based upon it somehow.

[RocketScientist]

cracked.com ( ... ) that article is particularly scary, so don't read it in the middle of the night.

Aw, hell. Now I basically have to go read it.

[Morgaln]

@Dovearrow - Don't suppose you could supply more information for us character geeks? I'm assuming he's a wizard?

For everyone else - I agree they look fresh, but it's possible they're a week old or so. Rigor mortis only lasts about a day before the enzymes that cause it begin to denature, and so the corpses would start to go limp again. After that, one of the first signs of decay would be bloating due to bacteria, and since some of them, such as Anandale, look pretty tied up, it's possible the deathtentacles simply held them tight enough to allow them to look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

While some (Kaoticken's character) look like their screaming in horror, (after all, they were just murdered by deathtentacles) the others look like... well, normal, slightly decayed corpses. The muscles that hold your mandible closed go limp just like every other muscle after rigor mortis. It's actually rather well-known and was taken into account in burial practices prior to our current embalming processes.

If the jaw isn't strapped shut when a body is mummified, it naturally falls open during the process of decay, leaving a permanent "scream." Most modern burial practices account for this -- the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business partner in A Christmas Carol, is always shown with that weird headband/chinstrap for precisely this reason.

Source is here, though I should note that cracked.com tends to use language that is not PG-13 and is highly addictive. Also, that article is particularly scary, so don't read it in the middle of the night.

So, once more, using our buddy Anandale as an example, it's possible they had a quick death. As anticlimactic as that is. Though, fighting off what could be a quick death would certainly be exciting for the... can we call them the GAP since they're tolerating Minmax now? "GAP+M?"

Also, obligatory "It's magic" hand wave

But those corpses aren't limp. If they were limp, their heads would have to be hanging down. Instead, several of them have raised their heads. For example, the way the brown guy at the left is holding is head, it's like he'd put it back and look upwards if he were standing. That is not a relaxed position. Similarly, most of them have made fists with their hands, another impossibility if you go limp. It can't be rigor mortis either, because that doesn't set in until a few hours after death; they would turn stiff in the limp position they had directly after death. Either they are killed through some kind of magic that turns them stiff instantly, or they are not dead after all.

[Dana Son-of-Bear]

@Dannon @Krulle

You always are terrible and I love it.

@Rocket

If you're ever looking for Nightmare Fuel, cracked.com has some for you.

@Morgain

That's a valid point, though I don't completely agree. I can't pull up a separate tab to look at the page since I'm on my phone, so I apologize that my examples have to be a little less specific than before.

If the deaththentacles strangled them, their heads could be locked in an upward position, so, limp or not, the bodies can't "move" outside their binds. The human-looking girl in the middle-ish looks like her head is lolling to the side more than staring straight up, so that might be some decay. With the weapons on the ground, it's possible that they were dropped by adventurers trying to cut themselves loose (or, in the case of Annandale, those with their weapons/spellbound already in their hands let go ?when they died.) Lastly, some of the corpses in the shadows look rather limp.

Their state of decay could also be prior to rigor mortis, considering that doesn't set in immediately.

[RocketScientist]

Either they are killed through some kind of magic that turns them stiff instantly, or they are not dead after all.

Fun with undead puppets!

[Zathyr]

Perhaps those aren't bodies at all, but body-shaped balloons someone tossed in there.

Adventurers can cook up some crazy ways to detect traps sometimes..

[RidcullyJack]

When I read this page, my first thought was that saying Ears the word "touch" was the trigger that set off the deathtentacles.

Thunt has quite regularly used mechanical or non-sapient dungeon creature encounters. I strongly suspect that the blindfolded statue droids will come into play soon.

[frontalbread]

Given the blindfolded statues, and the fact that all the corpses have their eyes open, my assumption is something along the lines of: while you can see, the tentacles will keep regenerating and grappling you, only going dormant when unobserved.

[Krulle]

Out of 764 entries, I was selected to be 3rd from the right. Thank you very much, @Thunt_Goblins ! pic.twitter.com/BEqGOg56QI

► Show Spoiler

[SpeaksManyLanguages]

Given the blindfolded statues, and the fact that all the corpses have their eyes open, my assumption is something along the lines of: while you can see, the tentacles will keep regenerating and grappling you, only going dormant when unobserved.

I like this theory.

[stevedj]

I can't help but note that every statue is blindfolded. The two that have the blindfold slanted and only over a single eye have either a bleeding eye or a giant helm obscuring vision over that one eye. I'm thinking the solution to this involves being able to see or not see.

Wait? Are they "Weeping Angels"?

[RocketScientist]

[Glemp]

No, look, it's very easy, just follow these simple instructions...

[RocketScientist]

But that which holds the image of an angel becomes an angel. Thunt starts drawing those, we're all going to end up angels ourselves.

[Krulle]

Fully shaded image is up: http://www.goblinscomic.org/05302015/
(I also edited my post on page 1 of this thread to insert permalink)