Grrl Power #468 – Blues closet
Maxima probably didn’t know about Ingsol’s attic or else she would have had Pixel or someone keep Sydney company (i.e. supervise) out there. Still, it’s unlocked and poorly concealed, so one would hope there’s not a Hand of Vecna laying around up there.
The average human amasses quite a bunch of stuff over their lifetime. Some are better about purging themselves down to the essentials, while some are hoarders. I hang on to some key articles from my childhood. I have a folder of terrible drawings from when I was a kid, my 8-bit Nintendo (actually all my consoles), a VHS copy of the original non-special edition Star Wars movies, even though I don’t have a VHS player any more. You know, stuff like that.
A 700 year old vampire would have to be really selective about what mementos to hang on to. I mean, ignoring the occasional involuntary purge, whether it’s fleeing a mob of angry villagers or losing it all in the odd London fire, someone a few centuries old would probably need quite a few storage lockers or maybe just very little attachment to the past, and when was the last time you saw a story about a vampire that wasn’t chocked full of flashbacks? Any vampire would probably have several caches of, well, mostly sentimental crap, but also a few priceless works of art and maybe an Eye of Vecna.
As previously noted, creepy flute player painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. (As soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
There’s a bull in a china shop and then there’s Sydney and magical artifacts.
https://img.phone.baidu.com/public/uploads/store_10/2/b/7/2b7f6376595a8ffb33570af2c2621a08.png
Sydney! No! Those items are probably extremely destructive artifacts and magic and it would be a bad idea to touch anything! I mean why else would they be kept in an attic… that is unlocked…. and completely unhidden . . . . Fuck it! The council are idiots for not doing any of those things! Everything that happens now is not your fault!
Preach it my friend, preach it!
I’d still use the orb of truesight to look at everything first.
Thinking about it now, it is most likely just storage for junk, but ya Truesight might be a good idea just incase.
I would be very disappointed with Sydney if she did not also push the glyph, which allows her to examine the ‘aura’ of the power. Such as with Vehemence’s aggro aura. Under normal truesight an amulet will look like an amulet, regardless of whether it has magical powers. But will stand out if it has powers that the orb can identify (even if Sydney does not yet know what the symbols mean).
Nothing ill can come of Sydney playing with relics of an unknown nature. Nope, nothing at all. In fact I think it is rather safe.
They didn’t just leave it unlocked and open. They left the light on. That’s just asking someone to come check out what’s going on.
The light IS the security system. It looks like it has a lot of output in the UV range, and so would be wery (um, very) damaging to any vampire who stuck his head in the door.
Assuming a vampire’s weakness to sunlight is attributed to something so scientific as UV radiation.
actually it would have to be the Violet – UV light end of the spectrum
if it was the red end of the spectrum
then candles and other common artificial light sources would easily burn vampires
and that can’t be the case because vampires have been using candles
and incandescent lighting since they were invented.
Not to mention Microwaves and radio waves used by cellphones, radio, and radar equipment
and with the ability to pass through solid objects, saturated the modern world
full spectrum also can’t be the cause because the full spectrum
doesn’t penetrate the atmosphere. and the full spectrum is far larger
than what we see as visible light, also the amount of power
that would required to create a stable full spectrum spotlight would be horrendous
also the high energy part of the spectrum past violet has the tendency to kill everything
regardless of if it’s vampire or not. the only factor is exposure duration.
high exposure UV causes cancer
Medium exposure x-ray causes cancer
Low exposure Gamma causes Cancer
High exposure x-ray or gamma causes death
the greater the exposer the faster you die.
Vampires just have lower tolerances to UV, X-ray, and Gamma Radiation
than Humans and other Super naturals
A Vampire would probably die from a single x-ray at the doctors
But Vampires have faster healing than humans
and don’t need to visit the doctors in the first place
But being a Doctor would be excellent cover for a vampire
wanting access to the blood bank blood supply
Might explain why all doctors activate the x-ray machine
from behind a lead wall and lead glass
while the human patient is put in the same room with only a lead apron.
Fun fact: this site’s comments section has text wrapping. No need to (badly) do it yourself.
Poetry?
Excellent analysis.
Assuming of course that it’s a part of the light that causes vampires to explode into ashes, instead of some mystical curse that ‘vampires shall never bare witness to the light of day again’ or some such.
Or the Sun just plain radiates some sort of anti-Vampire magic, the way the Moon gives off pro-Werewolf magic.
In-universe, that comment is racist and you know it!
But the moon in Arch-Earth doesn’t give off pro-werewolf magic, as explained a few strips bacvk.
But yeah, I usually hate it when people try to use science to explain things like this. A vampire is a preternatural creature–a dead guy who gets up, walks around, drinks blood, can change shape and control certain animals (including some humans), can conjure storms or fog, didn’t reflect in a mirror, is as strong as 20 men, and is weak to sunlight, garlic, and certain religious rites and sacramentals. No part of that is scientific.
The fact that they can’t be explained, that they exist in a setting in defiance of the laws of nature, is part of their appeal.
everything can be explained, if you can’t explain it
you haven’t studied enough science or magic.
Don’t fall for the “A kiss from you will break the curse”
https://oglaf.com/banthram/
They may have been cursed to never eat anyone who doesn’t kiss them first.
“Why don’t you kiss me and find out.”
Hey, maybe one of the unknown orbs usage is to bestow upon its wielder “Use Magic Device” ? Possibly sacrificing another orb if the item needs to be used in your other hand?
Sydney’s going to cause an international incident at this rate. :D
You’re thinking too small, there are at least a couple of alien representatives present…
I was thinking bigger. She could probably cause an interdimensional incident.
Hopefully she won’t literally break the fourth wall.
Linkara is ready for her- he is atop the 4rth wall….
*slow claps with all six hands* “Best use of that reference I have ever seen.
So long as she doesn’t come out wearing great granny’s vampiric cape & cloche hat, I think it’s likely it will be an embarrassment at best. Of course, if she finds the stash of fake vampire teeth lying next to the violently purple 70’s floor length cape… she may need some help leaving without some damage being done.
If WordPress supports featured comments, this needs to be one!
Floor length for her or floor length for an average person? She’s short so may struggle with clothing made for super sized vamps.
Yeah, this ain’t going to end well. Maxima is going wind up putting Sydney in irons once the dust settles.
A day in the stockade might be helpful with regards to turning Sydney into the person we saw in the first half dozen comics :P
We know she won’t be there very long if it happens :D
Unless she finds the other half of Max’s geode. Release Max from that burden could be worth a billion burritos.
Does she think to cast Detect Magic first, or check for traps? NO!
Dangit, Sydney! Gamers are supposed to be smarter than this…
Well technically Maxima is the one that split the party. What did she (M) think was going to happen? Nothing good ever happens when you split the party. It’s like rule #1 of gaming. And we know that Max is (or at least was) a gamer.
Never split the party.
It is right up there with “never get involved in a land war in Asia”
but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line”!
Actually that last one needs to be changed slightly.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line unless the game is rigged.
I thought it was:
If you go against a Sicilian and death is on the line the game is rigged.
“Just make sure it’s rigged in your favor.” – Dread Pirate Roberts (probably)
Common sense says “use the yellow ball” and “PUT THAT AMULET BACK DOWN YOU FOOL YOU DIDN’T DETECT TRAPS YET.”
Too easy to find, no enchantments on the lock and all it took was a simple push to open the door. I’m betting they’re fakes or world destroying artefacts.
The Head of Vecna
Sadly that link is coming up “siteBlocked”. Perhaps because I have set my security options very high, on my browser. Or maybe it is being blocked because there is a problem with it. Thanks for attempting to provide an explanation though.
Fortunately there are alternative links to be found. Both in the author’s blog above and on the previous page of comments
To be honest, playing with unknown, ancient artifacts is how Sydney got her powers in the first place… Still, Sydney should be genre-savvy enough to know that this is how you accidentally unlock ancient evil.
I do not foresee this building living very long.
I don’t foresee the building ever being alive.
Oh, you did not realise that Drawmij found that there was an upper limit on how big a building he could magically create, without epic spells? He branched out into breeding giant mimics, for office building-sized structures.
I am guessing you thought that was a tunnel that Maxima and Sydney walked down?
Sydney needs to be careful not to push the ‘vomit button’ given where she is.
Okay, that’s a hilarious image.
I thought it was Daern with the buildings?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greyhawk_deities#Daern
Drawmij was all about pulling useful items out of his sleeve, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawmij#Spells
(Apparently, even super geeky stuff like this even has Wikipedia entries.)
Actually the one I had in mind was Leomund. I had discounted Daern as I associate him more with magical items (Daern’s Instant Fortress specifically) than spells and I wanted a spell for that comment.
Then my brain does its usual trick of substituting some other (related) name, for a laugh, at my expense. :-/
“(Apparently, even super geeky stuff like this even has Wikipedia entries.)”
By my experience Wikipedia has all the geeky stuff :) And is the one you can trust the most, also.
so is the skeleton picture Dorian Grey or is it the backwards frame in the attic room?
The author’s blog, above, explains it:
There is also a link to the the time mentioned, when we saw it up close (albeit mostly blocked).
Was thinking the same thing about the frame in the attic
probably gonna trip the security system, fight it, and level up.
Was it just me?
I misread “Call me a half-elf” as “Call me a house elf”, like the ones from Harry Potter. I was thinking something along the lines of Hold on, did she just think she found the secret passageway to the kitchen?
It’s just you
I’m more of a D&D man than a HP man, so I took it in the “bonus to finding secret doors” sense that was ntended.
If not the Hand of Vecna, maybe she’ll find the Head of Vecna.
Just realized that in the interim between 6 and 7, Sydney has somehow ALREADY got her hands on a talisman.
It is hillarious how it just popped into her hand, like that. Shadrach has even identified what it is.
Personally I would have called those frames 7 & 8 myself. Counting each of the ‘half frames’ as a whole one, due to having their own borders. Or the ‘penultimate and final frames’, as that saves folks counting.
A monstrous entity playing an instrument: yeah that’s never a good sign.
Also Maxima, you left someone with severe ADHD out there by herself. Although it might help if we knew what this structure was *off the street*, because right now, secret meeting halls probably shouldn’t or wouldn’t be expected to have secret rooms full of treasure.
which slightly off topic, noticed one other major mythical/supernatural race not represented. The most ancient and powerful of all magical species, The Dragons. If anything other than an Eldritch would recognize those orbs a Dragon would be a good bet.
That is why they thought it was safe, from humans, by just putting it behind a secret door, on the ceiling.
A few seconds later either Pixel or one of Ingsol’s sirlings come looking for Sydney,see the open door and run back in the meeting chamber….! The consequences could be disastrous!!!
Phbbbt! Kids!
I’ve still got the original Star Wars AND the first-edition upgrades on LASERDISC!
AND I’ve still got my laserdisc player (right underneath my VHS).
Hah! I win!
What’s a laser disc? I havn’t upgraded my home entertainment system beyond VHS myself. Although my computer does have a coffee cup holder, if it is related to that?
;-)
And for those truly confused about LaserDisk…
LaserDisk or LD was a video storage format that was introduced back in 1975. It used a silver colored disk the same size as a vinyl LP, or 12 inches in diameter for those who doesn’t have an extensive collection of vinyl. The video signal was stored as analog signal using pulse width modulation and two analog audio tracks. A few years later the standard was upgraded to allow for an additional two digital audio tracks in CD format, and eventually multichannel digital sound in DolbyDigital (AC3) and DTS.
One frustrating thing was that the disk would initially only allow for 30 minutes of video per side, so a two hour movie was supplied on two disks and then they had to be flipped over or swapped every half hour. Later technology stretched this to 60 minutes per side, and players were developed that would read both sides of the disks with a slight pause as the disk had to be stopped and then spun upp in the reverse direction.
The big advantage of LD was image and sound quality. At the time it was introduced VHS had still to beat Betamax in the consumer market, but compared to LD both of those looked bad.
I remember that THE LD disks you were supposed to own included the StarWars series and perhaps most importantly Terminator 2…
My “Modern Media” teacher had one of those. We watched a semi-interactive LD about an incident between a bicycle and a car (spoilers: it was the cyclist’s fault).
The best thing was the mother of the cyclist saying “BALONEY”. The teacher had her say it over and over at our insistence.
I think it was a YTPoop in our classroom before YouTube even existed.
Word on the quality of sound and picture. Have a Riding Bean LD someplace – you could crank the volume on that thing and the only sound distortion you got was the limits of the sound system. We spent a day trying out sound systems with it and the player and mine came in second.
For similar sound quality, there are BluRay CDs that are just spooky iin this same way (Ultra HD, I think they’re called).
My mate has a wonderful home entertainment system. BluRay, top-quality stereo* and a flat TV that takes up most of his wall. Yet when I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse on it you could see the joints in the sets. Things which were meant to be brick/stone build were clearly just wooden framed structures, with a covering. Plus the flaws in the makeup were visible. I.e. making it apparent it was makeup, rather than someone worn out from fighting for survival.
There is such a thing as seeing something in too high definition. When the film was shot for a lower quality system. Even the silver screen smooths out some of those fine flaws, listed above, when seen at a normal cinema viewing distance. But in a the smaller confines of a home, you find yourself being taken out of the moment, by those jumping out at you.
* Or quadraphonic super barker or something.
what’s VHS? I’ve been recording everything onto my BetaMax! (kidding)
In first speech bubble, he shoukd be talking about groups “…or who FEEL that global chaos…”, not FEELS.
It sounds fine as spoken dialogue, to me. A certain amount of divergence, from the strictly correct, is to be expected. To my ears that does not come across as unnatural. Although it does not hurt to point such things out, as DaveB might want to tighten it up.
I pretty much bring it up for tightening- always good to fix something for going forward. But I just sounded it in my head again it’s more off when spoken then just reading through to me.
I didn’t notice it until after you pointed it out, but you’re correct – several groups feel, a group feels.
OK, if you feel you need it.
*holds forelegs wide, for a group hug*
Thank you for explaining why it is correct
Sydney’s insecurities about her body are now a thing of the past. She finally has a large chest!
The poor girl. To be cursed, before she gets to learn how wonderful she is, without that!
She’s also got lots of booty now too…
Reminds me of that one place in Dark Souls (the video game) when you meet Gwynevere.
“Amazing chest ahead”, indeed.
https://u.kanobu.ru/comments/images/8da22a38-4238-4116-b50f-76a4683e6666.jpg
Instead of calling her “Halo”, she should be called “Chaos”.
My guess is that Dave got bored with the comic and wanted to either end it or completely revise everyone’s powers.
maybe they locked her in the back room so she’d find ingsols magical toys and entertain herself. He probably keeps the dangerous stuff in a safer location, guarded by a greater demon, named Steve the Intern, who is right now on break, cause he ate some bad burritos the other night with a gal named K’Fel, nice lady, probably only wants him for his God like demonic energy (this is what he brags about to his friends (Ironically, its just his money she wants, she’s actually a spy for the Pa’Kon Empire of the 9th level of hell 999 sub level (they added on some sub levels to to a population boom in the late mid centry do to some demonologist accidently using a certain spell to improve his life in certain ways, unfortunatly it only worked in hell, and now he lives forever in shame of this))) anyways Steve the Intern probably wont be getting off of break any time to soon, as those were some really bad burritos.
:-D
Hmmmm….
Maybe double the length of your sentence with “colorful metaphors” & I’d almost think it was Sydney talking.
;)
Sweet, doing things instead of talking about things.
See, see, Sydney’s life is in danger now, because of folks wanting ‘more action’.
May you live in interesting times!
If Arianna isn’t cleared for this knowledge, I suspect she will be very soon, for a new form of public relations…
We’re overdue for another session of Dabbler’s Science Corner, I think! A lot of what’s been recently explained – or I suspect, what’s about to happen – could be explained that way…
Poor Halo. She clearly hasn’t heard the phrase, “Curiosity killed the werecat.”
Good thing werebunnies are safe…Mostly skittish they are.
That talisman gave me an immediate flashback to the symbol of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in Ultimate IV.
Somehow I can’t quite se Sydney as the Avatar of the Virtues… despite the default blonde hair.
That’s exactly what it is!
I think I know what Sydney’s should look for next in the room.
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/u5lazarus/images/8/8e/Keyofthree.jpg
I’m going to laugh if it turns out that Sydney’s actual power is a natural affinity for magical artifacts, and it almost makes the various powerful objects want her to use them.
*starts hunting through a box of gold stars*
Actually, forget that, here just have the whole box!
isn’t the opposite of a falsetto a bass or baritone?
It depends. Bass and the other classifications refers to the natural voice range of a person. Falsetto is a “trick” to force the voice above its highest natural pitch. I’m not aware of something alike that force the voice below its lowest pitch, what I think would be the correct opposite.
I’d say the opposite of falsetto is chest voice. Falsetto isn’t exactly the same as head voice, but it’s pretty close. The opposite of bass/baritone is tenor, if you’re thinking about men’s voices, or soprano, if you’re thinking about the usual SATB choral division.
I once saw a very similar scenario in a DnD game, where our party was trying to convince a powerful wizard to help save a town from some dragons. The psion sneaked off to break into and rifle through the wizard’s cursed items vault, resulting in a giant monster that killed psion, dragons, wizard and city.
We once released a trio of iron golems on an unsuspecting countryside.
… If they didn’t want her to get into stuff, then they shouldn’t have left her without supervision.
Archon has people with super strength, super speed, super science, super invincibility, and super reflexes, but I don’t think anyone on the team has super vision.
I bet there are folks in Arc Light who have various types of super senses. In fact, if you think about it, there will probably be more single power supers than any other sort. And quite a few of those will be of limited use. Single sense enhancement, of some sort, probably being relatively common. But, without any offensive or defensive powers, to supplement it, being of little use on a super battlefield.
Yet put them in a mostly investigative role, and their advantage could pay huge dividends.
As there are none in Arc-SWAT though, do you think Sydney might get a super visor?
I hope she gets some form of supervision.
Pun intended.
Your better underground lairs do have storage closets, and even broom closets.
“Oy! Boris! I found that old broken pentagram charm what don’t work nae more. Where should I be putting it?”
“Jest toss it thae junk closet with thae other things what nae works, Pavel. We clean it out good in a century or so, yah?”
‘Hokay, sounds good. Say, Boris..?”
“Ya, Pavel?”
How many points is a pentagram supposed to have?”
“Five, I thinks.”
“I think I figured out the problem with this pentagram…”
top lel
+1 (get it? *wink wink, nudge nudge*)
With sidney I’d be more worried about a Head of Vecna
Testing for Gravatar purposes…
Maybe this will work?
Ah. That’s better.
At normal viewing distance, that looks like a torso, with a possible gash cut into it. The larger (new comment, as opposed to reply) icon instead looks like a humanoid face (eyes slightly above frame) with a triangular nose and tongue lolloping out.
Up close, it invokes the urge to not be up close!
Nah, it’s clearly some kind of drooling lizard.
That’s… not drool! O_O
Oh dear, I saw that too…
Ahh, much better framed now. Terrifying from a distance too.
Oh, the framing has not changed, I was just sitting uncomfortably close.
*scurries away*
How about the Head of Vecna?
He has a bit of a head cold.
Or a bit of a cold head?
Ahh, so you think he may have been Dick Vecna?
Dick Vecna, Private Eye!
It was a dark and stormy night when she came crawling into my office, rain dribbling from all five of her fingers…
Oh noes, ‘the mystery of the three missing fingers‘! Poor girl.
I see a Dead Space marker in that room.
https://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Marker
Ooh, bottom right corner, and only the tips visible. Nicely spotted!
That that that was the ears of Anubis
*First ‘that’ should be “Thought”* :(
Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn’t they have to come in a much smaller size for that to be one? The one above seems to be about half of Sydney’s height, while the ones on the page you linked to (at least those which have someone in the picture) seem to tower over people somewhat taller than Sydney.
maybe the people who appeared to be taller than Sydney were actually just really tiny?