Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower) – Episode 050

[Reclaimer]

It just seems unusually powerful. It can stop combat in an entire hex. We haven't seen any evidence that (e.g.) Janis can do that (if she could, getting Parson through the portal would be no problem).

I dunno if there are "hexes" in the Magic Kingdom, and even if there were surely the great big mobs of various casters of all flavors would know some sort of loophole. If Janis pulled out the Flower Power it would be game on, and all sorts of weird broken combos would start coming from all corners.

[Jinren]

It just seems unusually powerful. It can stop combat in an entire hex. We haven't seen any evidence that (e.g.) Janis can do that (if she could, getting Parson through the portal would be no problem).

I dunno if there are "hexes" in the Magic Kingdom, and even if there were surely the great big mobs of various casters of all flavors would know some sort of loophole. If Janis pulled out the Flower Power it would be game on, and all sorts of weird broken combos would start coming from all corners.

Or because breaking out the bulk magic (as opposed to whatever she did to Jojo, which was 1) defensive and 2) nobody really saw) would quickly put paid to any remaining shreds of the all-important neutrality they want.

[Kandarin]

I had a somewhat crazy idea come to me, but I think it makes kind of sense (spoilered, just in case).

Spoiler: show

We know now that Olive Branch is very high level (even higher than Isaac), so it would not be surprising she is the highest level hippiemancer in Erfworld. We have also learned at the end of Book 1 that the hippiemancers are in a quest to end war in Erfworld (that's why they let Parson come).

What if Olive is trying to enact an earlier version of this "global peace" plan? In this plan, she is using Haffaton to conquer most of Erfworld so there can be lasting peace, a "Pax Haffatonia", where nobody willing to fight would be left. Of course the game dynamics make this almost impossible, but she might not know that...

After Haffaton falls (and Olive likely does with it), the hippiemancers realize they need to think more outside the box and they get onboard with the "perfect warlord" plan.

Ok, enough speculation and back to work!

I like your speculation, but it doesn't go far enough.

Spoiler: show

Jillian will soon find that the flower field is full of other Overlords. Jillian is there because Olive knows that she's an Heir - Olive's "Pax Haffatonia" plan involves drugging and capturing Overlords of neighboring sides, or capturing their Heirs and killing their Overlords. Their sides will still exist (managed by Chief Warlords or whatnot) but will not wage war on Haffaton as Haffaton can end them whenever it likes. Olive can thus run a giant, trap-ridden, ever-expanding side which can mostly make its neighbors do the fighting for it. If this goes on for long enough, eventually every Overlord in the world will be stoned in the Olive Garden, their sides will be unable to fight each other, and there will be Peace on Erf.

[cheeseaholic]

That would be a good way of enforcing tribute. We got your ruler and he's stoned as boop.

Hey ruler if you make an heir no more poppy.

[Arky]

"You're the Overlady of Haffaton?"

JILLIAN HULK SMASH. I'm pretty sure she's still got that kind of primal surge in her.

No more Overlady.

No more Haffaton.


(I'm now betting, incidentally, that Olive is dead at Wanda's hands which is why Jillian has just been able to wake up. Even if Olive had herself appointed heir, that won't help Haffaton. It's kind of interesting that Duty let Olive drug her ruler and take over the place... although it's only a really extreme version of what Maggie did to Stanley when you think about it).

[Oberon]

It just seems unusually powerful. It can stop combat in an entire hex. We haven't seen any evidence that (e.g.) Janis can do that (if she could, getting Parson through the portal would be no problem).

I dunno if there are "hexes" in the Magic Kingdom, and even if there were surely the great big mobs of various casters of all flavors would know some sort of loophole. If Janis pulled out the Flower Power it would be game on, and all sorts of weird broken combos would start coming from all corners.

Given that all the "weird combos" (bi- or tri-mancer links) require a thinkamancer, my money is on the GMtTA.

[vintermann]

I had a somewhat crazy idea come to me, but I think it makes kind of sense (spoilered, just in case).

Spoiler: show

We know now that Olive Branch is very high level (even higher than Isaac), so it would not be surprising she is the highest level hippiemancer in Erfworld. We have also learned at the end of Book 1 that the hippiemancers are in a quest to end war in Erfworld (that's why they let Parson come).

What if Olive is trying to enact an earlier version of this "global peace" plan? In this plan, she is using Haffaton to conquer most of Erfworld so there can be lasting peace, a "Pax Haffatonia", where nobody willing to fight would be left. Of course the game dynamics make this almost impossible, but she might not know that...

After Haffaton falls (and Olive likely does with it), the hippiemancers realize they need to think more outside the box and they get onboard with the "perfect warlord" plan.

Ok, enough speculation and back to work!

I like your speculation, but it doesn't go far enough.

Spoiler: show

Jillian will soon find that the flower field is full of other Overlords. Jillian is there because Olive knows that she's an Heir - Olive's "Pax Haffatonia" plan involves drugging and capturing Overlords of neighboring sides, or capturing their Heirs and killing their Overlords. Their sides will still exist (managed by Chief Warlords or whatnot) but will not wage war on Haffaton as Haffaton can end them whenever it likes. Olive can thus run a giant, trap-ridden, ever-expanding side which can mostly make its neighbors do the fighting for it. If this goes on for long enough, eventually every Overlord in the world will be stoned in the Olive Garden, their sides will be unable to fight each other, and there will be Peace on Erf.

I, too, think (and I'm pretty sure I've said it aloud before on the forums) that Haffaton is incarnation 1.0 of the Great Hippiemancer Peace On Erf conspiracy. But this speculation does not quite work.

Spoiler: show

We know that the sides Haffaton have gobbled up do not continue to exist. The neighbors (including Faq) would have known if Haffaton was a "federation" like that, and possibly (if they were unaware of the control) they would not be nearly as alarmed about their growth. No, the exploits used to support its unusual size are traps, hippiemancy-enhanced farming, hippiemancy gambits (as in Kiloton), golems (Tanenbaums, pea shooters etc.) and uncroaked. We know from the next books that it won't be enough. Haffaton is probably dirt-poor schmuckers-wise.

[youngstormlord]

So, we have found Overlady in the middle of a drug field, lying on her knees and elbows, looking like a drug addict that used too much meth for too long and there's still someone doubting if she's blissed out of her mind and Olive is in charge. I hope like hell that the next update comes soon.

[bladestorm]

So, we have found Overlady in the middle of a drug field, lying on her knees and elbows, looking like a drug addict that used too much meth for too long and there's still someone doubting if she's blissed out of her mind and Olive is in charge. I hope like hell that the next update comes soon.

The schedule is already messed up, and it would be nice if we had a buffer built up so that there is little or no interruption during the upcoming holidays. Maybe we can stack four of the book 0 updates in a row to give Xin time to build the Book 2 buffer. Book 0 is at a point where there is enough going on and enough to speculate about that I am not missing Book 2 as much.

Or we can have a buffer of Book 0 updates stacked for the holidays, so that we can get our erfworld fix that way. A holiday interruption may have some of us rampaging through the holiday decor yelling "Where the BOOP are the PINK FLOWERS?!!?!".

[0beron]

Well somebody posted an announcement about Rob recovering from something, and Hippiemancy being involved....but there is nothing on the website news about it, and I'm quite confused.

[effataigus]

Several days ago on the myface:

I'll need to post Inner Peace 050 in the afternoon tomorrow. There will be a comic page this week but that stands a chance of being late, too. We are plugging along, but I'm having surgery on Wednesday and there are a lot of other things going on.

[0beron]

Ah thanks! Well then the announcement makes sense now that I have the rest of the picture haha. Feel well soon Rob!

[Reclaimer]

Given that all the "weird combos" (bi- or tri-mancer links) require a thinkamancer, my money is on the GMtTA.

Don't forget about Charlie.

[Vreejack]

"You're the Overlady of Haffaton?"

JILLIAN HULK SMASH. I'm pretty sure she's still got that kind of primal surge in her.

No more Overlady.

No more Haffaton.

(I'm now betting, incidentally, that Olive is dead at Wanda's hands which is why Jillian has just been able to wake up. Even if Olive had herself appointed heir, that won't help Haffaton. It's kind of interesting that Duty let Olive drug her ruler and take over the place... although it's only a really extreme version of what Maggie did to Stanley when you think about it).

Except that the Overlady of Haffaton is stronger than Jillian.

As for Jillian waking up, I got the impression that the flower arrangement was entirely improvised on Dame Olive Branch's part, and not what she had planned. But since Jillian had already escaped once (very ingeniously) and had then shot her mouth off about how she was about to outsmart Branch yet again, the hippiemancer probably decided that shackles were useless and resorted to unorthodox measures. Perhaps Dame Olive is currently distracted elsewhere but hopes/assumes that Jillian will find the flowers herself.

[Oberon]

Given that all the "weird combos" (bi- or tri-mancer links) require a thinkamancer, my money is on the GMtTA.

Don't forget about Charlie.

Good point, given that Charlie has been instrumental in one of the most broken caster links to date, Kingworld (*ptui!*). Given that all known evidence points to that being a mere bi-mancer link, who knows what he could pull off linked with Jefti?

It'd be like a trip to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Or perhaps something from Circ du Soleil, which is far more ethereal.

[0beron]

Good point, given that Charlie has been instrumental in one of the most broken caster links to date, Kingworld (*ptui!*). Given that all known evidence points to that being a mere bi-mancer link, who knows what he could pull off linked with Jefti?

Aaaaaactually I would suspect JoJo WAS involved in the Kingworld link. Vanna had a similar "foggy memory" of the spell, just as Jack is unable to recall how to operate the table. (Whereas Sizemore and Maggie don't seem to have the same problem from their duo-link). Also it makes logical sense, Turnamancy deals with the time aspect, giving a Carny the understanding on how to rig it and cheat.
EDIT: and if the above wasn't enough for you, there's the glaring obvious fact that we know JoJo is/has been working for Charlie anyway.

[splexis]

All Olive needs now are flying monkey units!

Well considering that in Wicked at least, the Flying Monkeys were the result of the Wicked Witch experimenting with flesh and anatomy using magic.... *coughcroakamancycoughcough*

Interesting - that's not at all how it goes in the book.

Depends if one mean Baum's books or Maguire's.

[Oberon]

Aaaaaactually I would suspect JoJo WAS involved in the Kingworld link.

You can speculate this, but there's not a shred of evidence in the strip which supports the link involving more than Vanna and Charlie.

Care to wager some quatloos?

[0beron]

Aaaaaactually I would suspect JoJo WAS involved in the Kingworld link.

You can speculate this, but there's not a shred of evidence in the strip which supports the link involving more than Vanna and Charlie.
Care to wager some quatloos?

Actually there IS evidence, I just offered it, but sure I'll bet on it if you want.

[Lamech]

Aaaaaactually I would suspect JoJo WAS involved in the Kingworld link.

You can speculate this, but there's not a shred of evidence in the strip which supports the link involving more than Vanna and Charlie.

Care to wager some quatloos?

It takes some deduction: We know bi-mancer links basically let one caster be uber at what ever they already did. More juice, more focus, more intelligence, more energy, and I'm guessing that all translates into a big spell bonus too. There is no indication that a turnamancer has such a silly spell, and Vanna simply needed some boosting to hit GK with it. Plus it probably would have been mentioned ("a really powerful turnamancy spell").

More importantly, we have reports on what one can recall from the two kinds of links. Jack remembered what he learned from the Eyebooks. They wouldn't have attempted that if Jack would come back and say "So I checked for flaws on the eyebooks, and its all kind of fuzzy". Tri-links left Sizemore with a fuzzy memory though. Vanna also had a fuzzy memory.

So that means its likely a trimancer link. Due to the (perceived) risk of such links he must have hired people who were willing to accept the risk to stop G.K. Introducing someone like that retroactively is bad form, especially if there is someone else you can use who already exists. That leaves Jojo, the changeamancer, and the findamancer. Jojo is absolutely the best canidate since ending your opponents turn is pretty clearly cheating, plus we already know he has linked with Charlie. (The Charlie-carnymancy scroll.) So by Occam's razor Jojo is the best candidate.

P.S. This does make it sort of obvious to me that Charlie wanted Wanda DEAD. This was a trap to croak her. If he wanted Wanda away from Parson a really powerful turnamancy spell directed at Wanda should have done the trick.