The Goblins Fan Forum

Permalink: http://goblinscomic.com/comic/page-3-2018

At first I was like dafuq? kin is clearly not human. THE FOG! It covers her snake tail. She's so smart she knows exactly what's going on. Poor Kore needs to put more ranks in sense motive.

Kore's chatty.

I like this page a lot. Plenty of character play, cheeky discussion and interplay. Love the facial expressions (well, the third one of Kin's anyway). Yes, I was not so quick to figure out that Kore could not see Kin's tail.

A point to speculate on - Moving away from each other is going to be very difficult, Kin does not want to fall into the pit, and probably does not want to cast levitate while also casting for a shield (although perhaps that is what Parchment can do) ...

It seems like Kin is itching for a fight I wonder if she realizes how high level Kore is...and if she does, I wonder if she's good enough to take him...

Glemp correctly guessed the fog would hide Kin's true nature.
Well done!


Also, she's balancing on the thread of life. She just cannot keep herself from commenting Kore's actions.
And from interrupting him and answering before he has finished his question/comment.

But basically we now know, that Kore avoids using "detect evil".
Maybe he'll take her cue as incite to cast "Detect Evil" now?
Since she's been lying to him, and thus hiding her true identity, he may consider her to be evil, or his spell may consider her evil for this reason alone.


For those interested, the transcription (with links to sketches of some panels):

http://goblinscomic.com/comic/page-3-2018 wrote:

► Show Spoiler

Kore: ...kk...k...
SFX: Thump

Kore: ...k...
IME effect: N K N E K N E N . . .

-

-

Kore: Human female. ...kk... Are you native to this dungeon crawl? Are you in league with the monsters who dwell here?

-

Kin: Goodness, no. Monsters are evil. All of us Humans know that.

Kore: Not all of you. I'm currently hunting an evil Human who works with Goblins. ...k... He and his Goblin minions are hiding somewhere in this dungeon crawl. Have you seen any sign of him? Large, bald, one purple eye?

Kore: He goes by the name, Minmax.
Kin: Does he.

Kin: Well, he sounds simply terrifying. I shall try to avoid him, as I'm merely a low level wizard. Thank you for the kind warning, Dwarf hero.
IME effect: E K N

Kore: ...k... They are evil and cowardly. They abandoned their Dwarf companion to die by my hand. Usind his death as an opportunity to escape. So if you do find yourself in combat with the Human, his "friends" won't help him. There are none who would protect a creature like Minmax.

Kore: You look upset. Do my words... bother you?
Kin: No.
Kin: It's good that you were able to kill that evil Dwarf.

Kore: ...kk... ...k... Strange. Tell me, why are you in this dungeon crawl alone? You said yourself, that you're only a low level adventurer.

Kin: The rest of my party, two Elves and a Gnome, were killed in battle, a few rooms back. Only I survived, unfortunately.

Kore: Is that so. ...k... What manner of monsters...
Kin: Giant spiders with claws made of fire and broken glass as a breath weapon.
IME effect: K E K N E N . . .

Kore: I've never hear of...
Kin: No, you wouldn't have. It was a magical trap what combined all of our worst nightmares, creating the creatures. Are you a paladin?

Kore: What? ...kk... That ...k... is none of your...
Kin: Because if you are, then surely you cast 'Detect Evil' on that Dwarf before you killed him. Is that what you did?

Kin: How evil was that Dwarf? He must've been very evil, otherwise it's just murder. Making you a murderer who killed a good Dwarf.

Kore: ...kk... Did you know this Dwarf?
Kin: Of course not. I just find the virtues of paladinhood fascinating.
IME effect: K E N K E N . . .

sketches of panel 1, panels 3/4, panel 14

This is definitely my favorite page in a really long time. Kin shows so much personality, and we get to see how Kore acts when he's not sure somebody is "evil". Turns out, he's actually somewhat paladin-like!

I get the feeling that Kin is taunting him and poking fun at him by making these ridiculous lies just to prove how gullible Kore is. It's likely they'll end up fighting each other when the ruse is over, and I get a feeling the fight will be more equally matched than we expect it to be.

This image which Thunt recently tweeted is apparently from next week's page.
I don't think Kin is playing with him. Much. She's playing innocent and poking a little fun at him. But mostly she's hiding her nature to avoid a fight and pissed off and grieving over Forgath's apparent death. I think she knows she can't take him (or at least clearly not easily). That's why she's avoiding the fight, even after hearing about Forgath. That preview panel tells us something, although it's probably from the beginning of the page.

At least Kore's presence should make the room safe for now. The colors won't match if his IME affects even one of the symbols on his side of the room.

I'll note we also see that Kore doesn't apply ridiculously high standards to everyone he meets, and initially takes Kin's word for it being Good. So maybe there are cities, like Target or Brassmoon, that have encountered him and think he's a genuinely nice guy. I wonder if Kin will ask if he's met Goblin Slayer next, the two have a lot in common.

When I saw the first panel, I thought some kind of freezing effect was going on, but I just mistook some guy's beard (from Kore's IME) and the white fog for ice etc.

Also, I wonder if Kin would gamble and try to get Kore to remove the collar, once she realizes he IS a (high enough level) Paladin, or if she wouldn't risk getting that close to him.

Is Kore...stupid?

He assumed the little dwarf boy was evil because he came from a clan Kore disapproved of. But everybody has a loser of a relative. In fact Kin is a good creature from a clan Kore definitely would disapprove of. Even if Kin were a person, she very well could be a Lannisiter. Shouldn't he have worked this out by now and known enough to cast detect evil on the little boy?

Careful, Kin, you're balancing (well, slithering) on the fine edge of Kore's axes right now...

Although, her lower body is pretty much invulnerable at this point, right? Could be a repeat of Scorpikin if she can somehow trick him with a "I've been cursed into a serpentine form thanks to the collar" or something.

Kin has always come off as highly intelligent and very VERY well informed.

• I propose that Kin knows that this is Kore and is using that knowledge tactically.
• She might be intentionally goading Kore into casting detect evil. Since she is not evil this would strengthen her position and tactical decision space.
• The teaser image from next strip lacks any background context or spatial orientation. It could be of Kore reaching up to get help climbing back out of a floor segment that isn't "live" for him because it has Kin's IME.
• If the magic activated floor segments are locked out for only the active user (and Kin logically would not rule this out) then Kore would fall through without any action on her part while she stays safely in her green mist. She would also be hindered from escaping in the direction that Kore came from.
• We know that Kin is looking for Minmax AND that she knows Minmax isn't in the direction that Kore came from. Therefore she has to turn back which means traveling with Kore for a while.
• This means a temporary truce of subterfuge until she can get away from him safely. How does she do that? If he casts detect evil would he kill a not evil monster simply for not being human?
  For just lying?
• So, the teaser image of Kore reaching out could be of Kore reaching out for help getting out of the trap OR of him "honor bound" to help a "not-evil" monster if she pulls an intentional pit trap prat fall.

Ultimately I don't believe that Kin would attempt a direct frontal assault on the demonically OP'd dwarven tank that is Kore unless she knew for certain that she has a vastly certain advantage that would be assured of overwhelming Kore instantly.

ForgetsOldName wrote:Is Kore...stupid?

He assumed the little dwarf boy was evil because he came from a clan Kore disapproved of. But everybody has a loser of a relative. In fact Kin is a good creature from a clan Kore definitely would disapprove of. Even if Kin were a person, she very well could be a Lannisiter. Shouldn't he have worked this out by now and known enough to cast detect evil on the little boy?

No, he assumed the dwarfen boy had the potential to sympathise with evil at some point in the future because he'd been exposed to Evil monsters for so long. He even said the Bladebeards were generally an honourable clan. Only after he met Forgath did he judge the clan as a whole to be Evil, and that might have been a deliberate attempt to provoke Forgath into making a mistake.

Guys, I'm scared. . .
Why would Kore allow her to continue on her own path? Wouldn't he demand she come with him?

Glemp wrote:

ForgetsOldName wrote:Is Kore...stupid?

He assumed the little dwarf boy was evil because he came from a clan Kore disapproved of. But everybody has a loser of a relative. In fact Kin is a good creature from a clan Kore definitely would disapprove of. Even if Kin were a person, she very well could be a Lannisiter. Shouldn't he have worked this out by now and known enough to cast detect evil on the little boy?

No, he assumed the dwarfen boy had the potential to sympathise with evil at some point in the future because he'd been exposed to Evil monsters for so long. He even said the Bladebeards were generally an honourable clan. Only after he met Forgath did he judge the clan as a whole to be Evil, and that might have been a deliberate attempt to provoke Forgath into making a mistake.

Looking back, I see that this was his reasoning.

And it's still pretty stupid. Does he have the "detect potential evil" spell? Random human female adventurers have a lot of potential to be evil.

Alright I am going to go on some wild speculations at this point, but using a base in the comic for where I get this idea. In this case the idea came from this comic here http://goblinscomic.com/comic/06152012
We know that minmax and kin and forgoth all entered the maze. We also know that it reset time for them every failure and they got to over 1 million attempts. Now the kin group was able to do the maze over and over keeping things along the way due to that one minmax and them dealing with what he had going on. We have no clue how long they were in the maze, we just know that kin got levels and loot. Also we can assume that the maze does some things based on the peoples levels upon entering and the other players who didn't win don't go up in level since its basically a reset in all ways except the counter for them.

Now taking what biscuit said everyone gets a stackable bonus to wisdom in this world. While we don't know how long it takes to accumulate we do know that it happens and that the maze basically prevented aging. Assuming the exp gained eventually becomes negligable and they just let others win so they can keep at it, probably taking breaks at times for mental health and not leaving the starting area, they could have spent years easily in there. Or if they wanted to research certain things like the kins might possibly decades. With her ime now versus back then that isn't unreasonable.

Anyway to be honest I am not sure what skill challenges get a bonus from wisdom in this edition of d and d, but we know sense motive is one. I can assume that 4th which i know best isn't to far off in skill challenges while I am certain they arent exact. they include insight and perception. With her line of questioning she could be trying to learn information from the dwarf and as all the kins we got long exposure to seem to think at least to a fair extent "knowledge is power" after all they got excited about math saving the day.

I don't know why my mind went to this comic with biscuit specifically and I doubt they spent as long as he was being killed by demons in the maze they probably got a decent bonus from the time spent there.

On top of that I am assuming kin learned a lot about combat tactics and information gathering while in the maze, but that is less a thing versus my stackable wisdom thing. After all noting the dwarfs lies could be quite useful. I mean heck he is even speaking with his hidden teeth XP

Kin seems to be taking her cues from Tempts Fate.

There's a lot we don't know about Kore and how his curse works. All we know is that he's still a paladin (which, it has been explicitly acknowledged, is not how paladins are supposed to work) and that he will instantly slaughter any potential evil including all monsters. We've had hints as to why, but we still can only guess as to the specifics.

Kore is well known to some goblins, but Minmax and Forgath had no idea who or what he is. I don't think we can assume that Kin knows anything more than what we've seen on this page. She's just guessed and bluffed well so far.

The preview image was originally tweeted with the caption "would you take his hand?"

It was enough for Kore to see Minmax and Forgath standing next to goblins for a few seconds from a distance to consider them evil.

So Parchment (Kin's origami dragon) is also a point of danger.
If Kore will see Kin with it (ie. a monster) in anything other than combat he will consider Kin evil as well.

I hope Parchment is smart enough to remain hidden.

WearsHats wrote:...
Kore is well known to some goblins, but Minmax and Forgath had no idea who or what he is. I don't think we can assume that Kin knows anything more than what we've seen on this page. She's just guessed and bluffed well so far.

Correction: Forgath had a pretty good idea who Kore is.

Minmax's ignorance isn't much of a surprise.
I guess Kore is pretty famous, at least in that part of the world.

But I agree we can't assume Kin knows anything about Kore, especially since it was noted she originally comes from a far away place.

BuildsLegos wrote:Actually, could Kin use illusion magic to appear human? If so, it's terrifyingly possible that Kin will get legit friendly with Kore and Forgath might misconstrue this as betrayal.

BuildsLegos wrote:Given the freaky nature of Kore's IME, I figure any friendly talk on Kin's part will be deception; NOBODY has a collection of screaming heads bound to them by ghostly chains without being somebody to not trust.

This is not a fun way to even potentially be half-right. Seriously: the safest option for Kin now is to keep Kore on good terms, and that still might keep her prone to rash decisions on part of Minmax or Forgath.

Kore in this page - "K...k...... Must find.... Some nebulous connection to evil...... So I can.......slaughter this random person....... K....k........ Quick..... Tell me what sort of..... K...k... Evil creatures you were fighting......k.....k.... So I have an excuse to murder you in your.....k...k.. Face."

Remember how Kin knew about the magic that turned Dellyn into a half-tree man? I have a feeling I know how she'll explain her bottom half once the mist clears...

Glemp wrote:Remember how Kin knew about the magic that turned Dellyn into a half-tree man? I have a feeling I know how she'll explain her bottom half once the mist clears...

I really doubt Kore would care. I'm also pretty sure he knows what Yuan-Ti are and wouldn't fall for a lie so lame.

About Kin knowing who Kore is, makes sense to me. Someone like him would be almost like an Urban legend among Monsters. Think Boogeyman.