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http://goblinscomic.com/comic/page-19

Actually posting the page link for once, but I can hardly enjoy it because of how worried I am. O_O Normally, I'd be sure there's some way out of this for Fumbles, but in this comic... anyone could die.


(Also hope I did it right, or even that I was allowed to. )

The title is supposed to have the date in it, there's an "on new updates" section in the forum-rules sticky thread.

The Staff of Notangle sounds as if it would break the Axe of Prissian, if the Axe was really was the prison-Prissian that Big Ears believed it to be. (Are there already names for discussing the prison-Prissian vs the gateway-Prissian)?

Oof... Fumbles... damn. I did see it coming. I so totally hope he's strong enough to survive this. I don't want to see him die just yet, now that he starts to get some self confidence and some courage. He totally deserves it and I guess becoming a 15 imprint teller will put him into the position he deserves.

DoesNotRiskTraining wrote:The Staff of Notangle sounds as if it would break the Axe of Prissian, if the Axe was really was the prison-Prissian that Big Ears believed it to be.

Isn't that what happened here: http://goblinscomic.com/comic/04132016-2

Crap, the soul imprints aren't magical! There are now 3 major possibilities:

1) Fumbles dies
2) The paincloak causes Fumbles to survive, but in a deranged "THIS WHOLE WORLD DESERVES TO BURN" state of mind
3) Fumbles has fumbled his whole life in order to roll 15 nat 20's in a row.

Most heartwarming/breaking possibility?

DoesNotRiskTraining wrote:The title is supposed to have the date in it, there's an "on new updates" section in the forum-rules sticky thread.

Oh, thank you! Yeah, I've looked through it, I'm just pretty forgetful. I just wanted to do one update, at some time.

Corrupt User wrote:Crap, the soul imprints aren't magical! .

Or, well, maybe they're not magical bindings? They don't actually hold someone in place, they just get absorbed into them?

Come on little buddy, you can do it!

Yeah, we can only see his skeleton no big deal.

For a moment, I thought Fumbles had found a clever way to deal with each imprint one at a time by untangling them. I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't work because I think it will be hard for Thunt to present a more believable reason of how Fumbles survives this.

I've been confused about this strip since Thunt put the preview on Patreon.

We haven't seen the staff of untangle before. It's also unclear to me how one untangles a bunch of souls attacking you. Binding is not the word I would think of to describe this ceremony. More like possession or absorption.

Did Fumbles untangle Thac0 and free the spirits to flow into Fumbles? That's how it looks. If the staff doesn't do anything, then the story isn't moved forward by this update and its weird item at all. So something must have happened, I'm just not sure what.

Gonna be a loooooooong wait until next week to answer this cliffhanger

ForgetsOldName wrote:I've been confused about this strip since Thunt put the preview on Patreon.

We haven't seen the staff of untangle before. It's also unclear to me how one untangles a bunch of souls attacking you. Binding is not the word I would think of to describe this ceremony. More like possession or absorption.

Did Fumbles untangle Thac0 and free the spirits to flow into Fumbles? That's how it looks. If the staff doesn't do anything, then the story isn't moved forward by this update and its weird item at all. So something must have happened, I'm just not sure what.

He's had it for a while, just nobody knew what it did yet.

ForgetsKeys wrote:For a moment, I thought Fumbles had found a clever way to deal with each imprint one at a time by untangling them. I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't work because I think it will be hard for Thunt to present a more believable reason of how Fumbles survives this.

I don't think you need to worry that Thunt is improvising here and might not pull it off. This is clearly a major plot point. Whatever happens now, he has been heading toward it since Day One of Goblins. You'll be able to see, in retrospect, a bunch of foreshadowing clues going way back -- because that's what Thunt does.

WhispersToSquirrels wrote:

DoesNotRiskTraining wrote:The Staff of Notangle sounds as if it would break the Axe of Prissian, if the Axe was really was the prison-Prissian that Big Ears believed it to be.

Isn't that what happened here: http://goblinscomic.com/comic/04132016-2

Finally this makes sense! Well spotted!

Excitement! We get to see how many classes can be enhanced magically by the accumulated experience of all the previous tellers lives ... Fumbles is going to be an impressively powered up magical cleric from now on, that is my prediction and it is as good as a prediction as everyone elses' up until I am proven false.

Good spot on how the Axe of Prissan was sundered - It is a magical binding on the axe that was broken, although the wielder is probably Big Ears, and not the entity bound into the axe, so I am a little perplexed as to how a MAJOR artifiact like the Axe can be broken but I presume it was an accumulation of many things. The attacking of a good character (Fumbles) by a Paladin, the staff and the attack on a member on one's own party (even if it was through magical means) it means that there is a lot of confusing stuff that probably accumulates to a mess of inappropriate non-paladin like activity. Hence 'Boom' to the Axe.

Ever since Fumbles started talking about wanting to absorb lots of imprints, I've been thinking that his 11 character classes could make it possible for him to split imprints among them, so the 15 imprints wouldn't be able to gang up on him all at once, with only four classes able to count as having two imprints assigned to them. Probably not a particularly easy task, but it could be a lot more survivable that way.

Yeah, CLEARLY the imprints work derived based on character levels, and since he's 1/13th in thirteen different classes and it rounds up for each one, he actually has a large chance of surviving. Definitely what it is.

Fumbles is about to die or become a godly goblin teller. Not sure what to think.

Well the exposition on the staff power does work, because it gives Fumbles a reason to try out the imprints instead of just running away, like he almost did... but man, I don't care if this is the ASOIAF of comics, if Fumles dies... ok, I won't quit, but I'll throw a tantrum.

ForgetsOldName wrote: We haven't seen the staff of untangle before. It's also unclear to me how one untangles a bunch of souls attacking you. Binding is not the word I would think of to describe this ceremony. More like possession or absorption.

Did Fumbles untangle Thac0 and free the spirits to flow into Fumbles? That's how it looks. If the staff doesn't do anything, then the story isn't moved forward by this update and its weird item at all. So something must have happened, I'm just not sure what.

Fumbles gets the staff here, and the next page shows it undoing bindings. But you're right, apparently binding is not what happens in this ceremony, so the staff didn't work. Fumbles's hope that it would work is what made him jump into the imprints right before they got Thaco.

I count 15 imprints. I'd like to know how does a Goblin Fortune Teller work but I'm assuming they cast cleric spells like a cleric of a level equal to their number of imprints. That would mean that Fumbles could cast Resurrection... I can see them having to kill Kore to liberate Chief's soul in order to resurrect him.

This however poses a problem: if Fumbles survives he will be extremely powerful compared to his companions.

LarsenSan wrote:This however poses a problem: if Fumbles survives he will be extremely powerful compared to his companions.

I don't see that as a problem. It is if you view it in terms of game balance and letting all players in a party feel they have an equal chance to contribute to a successful evening's play... but that's not quite what's going on here. The goblins may or may not even have players... I know I have suggested in the past that they might, but there is clearly a layer above and beyond that: the story.

On the Story level, the goblins are a team. Fumbles cares deeply about his friends. Powers for him are powers that will be used to help them all. They've been thrust into a nigh-impossible mission. They need some huge advantages on their side!

And Story complications would almost write themselves... I predict, for instance, that if Fumbles survives this, it won't be easy for him to learn how to manage all that extra power.

Sessine wrote:

LarsenSan wrote:This however poses a problem: if Fumbles survives he will be extremely powerful compared to his companions.

I don't see that as a problem. It is if you view it in terms of game balance and letting all players in a party feel they have an equal chance to contribute to a successful evening's play... but that's not quite what's going on here. The goblins may or may not even have players... I know I have suggested in the past that they might, but there is clearly a layer above and beyond that: the story.

On the Story level, the goblins are a team. Fumbles cares deeply about his friends. Powers for him are powers that will be used to help them all. They've been thrust into a nigh-impossible mission. They need some huge advantages on their side!

And Story complications would almost write themselves... I predict, for instance, that if Fumbles survives this, it won't be easy for him to learn how to manage all that extra power.

I also view this as very similar to how an epic level campaign I once played in ended. Basically, are DM had an end game. There was a "Final Boss" so to speak with no way out. The characters were going to die no matter what and we were either going to save all the other planes and just blow up our own, or else every other one was going down with us. But before that battle happened we got stock piled with power galore.

I could see this being similar, not in the sense of the GAP dying, but the story coming to a close. Kore is bearing down on them. The Demon from the Axe of Prissan is nigh. It's all coming to a head. It would only make sense that one of the GAP gets a massive power boost and honestly, would it shock anyone if a super high level teller was giving massive aura bonuses as well? Like being able to predict attacks, etc., so all party members just get a bonus for being nearby?

C'mon Fumbles. Just make it through this one.

Why Fumbles is one of the healthiest little goblins I've ever seen! And such plentiful souls!

I think Fumbles's history of surviving torture is likely to make a big difference to how the fifteen spirits will affect him. I figure it's a case where the pain of being flooded with so many angry spirits and their memories is what normally kills the greedy teller-to-be. Imagine having fifteen people constantly yelling into your ear; most people would go catatonic after such treatment, but Fumbles has deal with worse.

LarsenSan wrote:This however poses a problem: if Fumbles survives he will be extremely powerful compared to his companions.

Do *you* want to have a character 10 levels higher than you, with a history of catastrophically screwing up everything he does, in your party?