Book 2 – Page 49

[raphfrk]

Assuming 1/3 dead, 1/3 incapacitated and 1/3 awake, then the odds are

Wanda dead: 33%
Wanda able to decrypt: 44%
Wanda alive but unable to decrypt: 22%

Dead = Wanda dies
Able = Wanda alive or Jack alive + Wanda unconscious
Unable = Wanda dead or Jack unconscious/dead + Wanda unconscious

If Wanda is knocked out, Jack must be awake to use the scroll. This assumes that non-casters can't use scrolls. One option there would be an archon.

[Skyler]

Wanda and Jack might both get incapacitated. Then Sizemore or Maggie might have to go with Parson to grab and use a heal scroll.

[emo samurai]

There's no way that an Arkentool wielder will die before

1. The quest is over

or

2. A new wielder comes along.

That's not how these things work.

[GaryThunder]

I wonder if casters can even be promoted to heavy units at all. There's no logical in-universe (in-game?) reason that such an upgrade would be possible. Casters gain no utility from Heavy bonuses as they're not physical fighters in the first place...maybe a few extra hits, but if your casters are in a position to be taking direct hits from enemies, maybe you should have rethought your caster deployment. They actually lose utility, as their heavy status would prevent them from riding mounts. Casters probably don't have terribly high move on foot.

But the most compelling argument is that if Parson had had any opportunity to not gamble all of GK's survival on one ludicrously risky fall plan, he would have snapped it up in a second. If there was any feasible way of getting Wanda on the ground without falling, it would be happening. He's just out of good options.

[joosy]

Sweet. Its nice when a plan falls into place. Now for a little Luck(mancy) and we are back in business!

I hope GK doesn't lose the archons; they are stuck in the airspace. Parson could just order them and Ossmer to the airspace over the Outer Walls, out of reach of the tower defenses and archers. (assuming the tower defenses can't reach - we already know the archers would have to be redeployed to the Outer walls to reach them there). Of course, they may need to be dusted so that Jetstone can get enough Schmuckers from Charlie (assuming he is giving them actual Schmuckers and not just 'store credit') and Slately can make his last dying order to name Trammennis heir, as Trammennis blasts off with Ace's Jetpack.

Or the Unipegatuars in the tower carry Slately, Trammennis, and the casters away and they are able to escape the archons in the airspace.

sad that we have to wait another week, but its been over four months of buildup for this climax. I can wait a little longer.

Also.. Stanley is just going to complain even if they win. Most of his dwagons now answer to Wanda, lots of schmuckers were spent on upgrading Parson and the hobgobwins, and he lost a few cities to Faq. At least he won't be bitching about the missing gobwins.

[atteSmythe]

Edit: I presume that Parson couldn't have simply promoted Wanda and Jack to "Heavy" status?

Presumably.

I doubt that the heavies are getting a free off-turn landing, though. It's just a that their mounts have a chance of surviving the fall, whereas the others are guaranteed casualties.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

A fair bet. In-universe, it's a roll of the dice that's still better than a 0% chance of survival; but from a storytelling context, Rob did not just spend three months building up to this massive cool plan just to have it all negated by Wanda rolling a natural 1.

A roll? That doesn't matter. Mathamancy's largely bunk.

I guess the idea is that with likelihood of 1/3 wanda is only wounded, and if she is incapacitated (also 1/3 chance) Jack can heal her with a scroll - if he is only wounded. All in all its roughly a 44% chance of success.

[falldowngoboom]

Which is better then the zero% they had just chilling in mid-air. Not great odds, but you take what you can get.

[GaryThunder]

I guess the idea is that with likelihood of 1/3 wanda is only wounded, and if she is incapacitated (also 1/3 chance) Jack can heal her with a scroll - if he is only wounded. All in all its roughly a 44% chance of success.

Well, we really have no indication that it's a straight 33%/33%/33% split with the three choices of fine, incap, croaked. So those numbers could be way off. Besides, Jack looked like he had a reasonable chance of making it through, he clung to his mount more tenaciously than Wanda did.

You're holding a giant pair of pliers, Wanda! Couldn't use them to, oh, I don't know, grab ahold of something? To stabilize yourself on your plummet to your doom?

[joosy]

I was kind of half hoping that Wanda would find out that the Arkenpliers would let her fly like the Arkenhammer but alas. Even if that was the case, she would have had to let go and submit to natural shockmancy to transition to the ground anyway.

Edit: Or it may be a special power of the Arkenpliers that the attuned one is partially shielded from injuries like this.

[Infidel]

Woot! Time for a new avatar!

Heh, I was thinking it was probably her best quote ever.

HHEP - I had to look it up since Rob likes to slip interesting stuff in there.

Health Hazard Evaluation Program. Coincidence or deliberate?

An update the day before I go back out. Nice. Thank you providence. If I'm really lucky, there will be another update the day I return.

[Wakky]

I love how Jack and Wanda wistfully look at each other, and then they both croak their mounts, with Jack simply using a tap of his cane. Nice artwork on this one, Xin!

[joosy]

I like to think that the next text update will be the inner thought process of a sinking dwagon -much like that of the conjured whale as it plummeted to Magrathea in HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Of course it could be "Banana"'s thoughts. If so they would be short and sweet much like the conjured potted flower alongside the conjured whale in Hitchhiker's.

"Not again!"

[melhelix]

That shoulder is definitely broken or severely dislocated, and that leg doesn't look too good either.

I have to say, that for me, this page has the best art of Book 2 so far. Really, spectacularly well done, especially panels 4 and 9.

[Ansan Gotti]

I can. Not. Wait. For the next few updates!!

[Sigma]

I have mixed feelings about this page, at least in terms of the plot. To me it confirms that Rob is either staring down (bad) or intentionally deconstructing (good (?)) an ugly narrative double-bind: if Wanda croaks, Gobwin Knob is back behind Square One -- worse off in nearly every way than they were at Book 1 Page 1 (except for Parson, of course). If Wanda lives, there's likely to be a (large) chunk of the fanbase that, in outrage, will hold this debacle up as a hideous example of the power of Plot Armor.

So, I'll go for the long shot: Wanda survives the fall, but the Chekov's Gun that Parson just lampshaded gets fired -- and Wanda croaks at a plot-critical moment some time after Parson's arrival in Jetstone.

[MattX]

I'm guessing Crypsis.

[Belial666]

Question:

Couldn't Parson add a second rider to Jack's and Wanda's dwagons - and that rider be a hobgowin? We've already seen multiple riders, and he could promote the hobgobwins to heavies and have his casters sink down without falling.


PS: why does my text appear a different color than everyone else's?

[Infidel]

I have mixed feelings about this page, at least in terms of the plot. To me it confirms that Rob is either staring down (bad) or intentionally deconstructing (good (?)) an ugly narrative double-bind: if Wanda croaks, Gobwin Knob is back behind Square One -- worse off in nearly every way than they were at Book 1 Page 1 (except for Parson, of course). If Wanda lives, there's likely to be a (large) chunk of the fanbase that, in outrage, will hold this debacle up as a hideous example of the power of Plot Armor.

So, I'll go for the long shot: Wanda survives the fall, but the Chekov's Gun that Parson just lampshaded gets fired -- and Wanda croaks at a plot-critical moment some time after Parson's arrival in Jetstone.

Never devolve the world into one of two options. There are always more options.

As a storyteller. I can see some value in making Wanda and Jack both incapacitated for a number of rounds, or whatever the erf equivalent is. It would certainly heighten the tension.

And there are always a chunk of the fanbase that blames plot armor, deux ex machina, or bad storytelling for whatever plot device they just don't like for whatever reason. I think it comes from a strict black/white outlook. Where storytellers tend to think in shades of grey, and full spectrum color.

[Dr Quest DFA]

Awesome art in the update. I would say the frame with all the dwagons over the atrium might be one of the best frames to date in Erf Wrold (jamie's stuff included)

i wonder what Trem is going to do now that most of the Dwagons will be out of the tower defense range and safe from most of the archers. If I were him I'd fry what's left in the sky and quickly deploy all the remaining ground troops into the atrium while GK is still getting organized. I think parley is out of the question at this point.

Also, can anyone well if Ossomer is also harvesting his mount?

Can't wait for the next update!