158 The battle for Gobwin Knob, page 145

[Mikalyaran]

1) I love the "Evil Rock God look on Ansom with the stars changed to skulls. That is cool.

2) Things are going to get interesting in a hurry. The army will undoubtedly have members from both sideas, and it seems they now will be working together.

3) The sheer amount of troops that are left over from the battle will easily overwhelm even Ansom's Archons.

4) I think I read somewhere that the 4th known Tool is Ansom's dish, which allows him to control the Archons.

5) Who thinks that Person and Ansom are a REALLY cool looking team?

1.) Totally cool looking

2.) yup

3.) Ansom doesn't have archons and mever did. That's Charlie with the arkendish. But yeah...this is probably going to be a pretty massive decrypted army. It will be interesting to see what GK does with it.

4.) See 3. Also this means that the 4th tool is still unknown. We have the Hammer, Pliers, and Dish known.

5.) I think they are going to make a great team.

Look out erfworld. It's on...

[Thand]

Parson wielding the Arken Sword anyone?

[hanglekuk]

Parson wielding the Arken Sword anyone?

Sword is a weapon, not a tool - not likely.

Screwdriver - the closest thing to sword, I'd imagine.

[BarGamer]

Nah, properly sharpened, the Erfworld version would be more like a pike or spear than a sword.

[VoidPointer]

The Arkensaw could work like a sword, especially if that sword were, say, a chainsword.

That's probably too grimdark for Erfworld, though, and Parson really doesn't need an Arkentool to do what he does. It is, however, worth considering that a dish is not a "tool" in the classic sense. The fourth (on up?) Arkentool(s) could be things that run counter to the traditional definition of a tool.

Here's hoping for an Arkentransistor.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Maybe his MAGICAL gauntlet is an Arkentool?

[TheWombat]

As much as I new that something like this conversation was going to happen, it still blew me out of the water. Bravo.

[Chox]

Gauntlet. mathamancy magical item, not an artefakt. That would be just too random. And I find it is probably a simple calculator, that is just normal for parson to use, instead of pen and paper method. And mainly it doesn't have the sparcle efect, like the rest of Arkentools.

I expect that perhaps Transilvito, or some other side has the fourth tool.



And on one of the previous post, Ansom didn't have stars he had strawberrys.

[SteveMB]

Perhaps Ansom has found his true purpose now...

He seems to think so. It may not even have anything to do with the effects of being decrypted. In the real world, when something manages to upend a fanatic's worldview it sometimes produces fanaticism in the opposite direction (determination to attack his own previous beliefs, which the fanatic now regards as a delusion that had held him in thrall). The same psychology might be at work here.

[RebelWulf]

They werent strawberries, they were 'Royal Radishes' which get mentioned a couple of times.

[Keldaria]

Is it just me or is Wanda's powered enhanced by the pliers? I mean could the no decay and other effect just be a side effect of wanda using the pliers with her power or is it from her new level or maybe just becauase they revieved another sides chief warlord?.. many many questions to be answered here imo ... but its Booping AWESOME thats for sure

[Thydron]

guess we'll have to wait a bit to see if these new troops are uncroaked or decrypted

[raphfrk]

4) I think I read somewhere that the 4th known Tool is Ansom's dish, which allows him to control the Archons.

The dish is a tool, but that still only makes 3 of them (hammer + pliers + dish).

[raphfrk]

Maybe his MAGICAL gauntlet is an Arkentool?

All tools so far appear as 3d-rendered images. Parson's gauntlet is drawn like the rest of the comic.

The same applies to his watch (which is really the power behind the gauntlet).

I expect that perhaps Transilvito, or some other side has the fourth tool.

Also, the battle is supposed to be part of the great 'western' conflict. That implies that it only covers 1/4 of the world and somehow 3/4 of the known arkentools are involved.

Ofc, Charlie could be located anywhere, and the dish could give him unlimited range for his Thinkamancy.

It seems reasonable that an unknown side would own the 4th 'known' tool.

Also, it is said that Stanley 'found' the Arkenhammer. I wonder what 'found' actually means. Maybe the Arkentools pop like everything in Erfworld and Stanley was in the hex when the hammer popped.

[workmad3]

It seems unlikely that the hammer just popped as the arkentools are meant to have been left by the titans (implying, at least to me, that they have been around for a long time). More likely, the hammer was previously carried as an artifact by some other side and was either dropped in a skirmish and lost, or no one knew which side had the hammer and stanley got it after defeating some part of this proposed side that had it with them.

One thing I'd be interested in with the 'decrypt' is whether it heals as well as revives? Ansom's body was in pretty good nick when Wanda found it, so we don't know yet. If a body is badly mangled, can it heal the wounds and rebuild limbs, etc, or is that the limiting factor? Will people fighting the new GK have to horribly mutilate any and all casualties to stop them being raised as effective decrypted infantry for GK?

[raphfrk]

It seems unlikely that the hammer just popped as the arkentools are meant to have been left by the titans (implying, at least to me, that they have been around for a long time). More likely, the hammer was previously carried as an artifact by some other side and was either dropped in a skirmish and lost, or no one knew which side had the hammer and stanley got it after defeating some part of this proposed side that had it with them.

Even an unattuned Arkentool gives a boost to the side that holds it. The only reason to keep possession of the tool as secret would be to prevent invasion.

I guess a side that held the Arkenhammer could have been popping Dwagons and claiming that it was a natural resource due to the location of their city, and they were just lucky that it was on their build queue.

Another option is that they are held by native life. If you kill a dwagon, there is a 0.01% chance that it would drop the Arkenhammer. Stanley was just very lucky.

I wonder if only part of the world is actually civilised. In MMORPGs there are often zones (or dungeons) with high level mobs that act as quest targets. Maybe Stanley managed to kill a very high level dwagon in order to get the hammer.

[dirocyn]

"3) The sheer amount of troops that are left over from the battle will easily overwhelm even Ansom's Archons."

It's Charlie's Archons, actually, but even so, this is unlikely. Archons are tough, more than equal to dwagons when they've got a warlord (Zamussels) in the hex. Even the Arkenpliers won't make every undead unit a level 10 warlord. They'll have to go find croaked level 10 warlords to get that. I'm guessing they're raising the entire croaked coalition force--I bet they can't "decrypt" an uncroaked unit that's been destroyed. So the new units will be mostly level 1, just crummy infantry.

Also, Ansom won't be as powerful now, because he won't be wielding the pliers. Remember, this system is all about multipliers--if Parson, Ansom, Wanda, and Stanley all fight together in the same hex, their multipliers will stack to make those Level 1 uncroaked quite formidable, and the dwagons practically invincible.

So we have the Arkenhammer, which lets its attuned wielder fly, call lightning, tame dwagons, and turn walnuts into pigeons, plus gives a bonus to units in the hex--and we have the Arkenpliers, which instantly destroy most uncroaked, can "decrypt" croaked units without loss of levels, decomposition, or upkeep, and gives a bonus to units in the hex. I think it's fair to surmise it has one or two other powers we don't know about. And then there's the dish, which seems to allow communication through another side's books, calls Archons, and ...who knows what else?

[RebelWulf]

Gobwin Knob were the only side to have Eyebooks thanks to their powerful linkup, as far as the comic is aware.

Though odds are, Charlie worked out there was thinkamancy going on and decided to check out what it was - thereby finding and hacking the Eyebooks.

[Nakor]

"3) The sheer amount of troops that are left over from the battle will easily overwhelm even Ansom's Archons."

It's Charlie's Archons, actually, but even so, this is unlikely. Archons are tough, more than equal to dwagons when they've got a warlord (Zamussels) in the hex.

The Dwagons the Archons fought were badly injured, so it's not a real good metric for a strength comparison.

Archons are clearly quite strong, though.

So we have the Arkenhammer, which lets its attuned wielder fly, call lightning, tame dwagons, and turn walnuts into pigeons, plus gives a bonus to units in the hex--and we have the Arkenpliers, which instantly destroy most uncroaked, can "decrypt" croaked units without loss of levels, decomposition, or upkeep, and gives a bonus to units in the hex. I think it's fair to surmise it has one or two other powers we don't know about. And then there's the dish, which seems to allow communication through another side's books, calls Archons, and ...who knows what else?

I'm not convinced that the dish is the what gives Charlie the Archons. It's not exactly unlikely, but I tend to think that the arkentools will be more significantly different than that, now that we've seen a little more of what the pliers do. The hammer already does the "tame a big strong unit" thing.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Archons paired with a Transyvito warlord were supposed to be able to easily crush a dwagon that had an overlord bonus. I'd say they are probably about on par with a dwagon in terms of damage output.