Jophiel wrote:
That seems like way too many vampires for Durkon to have made plus early-raised and Protected from Sunlight.
Kinda depends on how the staff was constructed. With only vague memories of D&D rods and staffs, most of them that have charged spells don't just have a specific number of each spell, but rather have a list of spell effects the item can generate and a number of charges that can be used (with each spell costing a specific number of charges). We can assume that Malack didn't anticipate needing to use the quick vamp spell very often, but he might have put a (largish) number of charges in the staff to have plenty for any time he might need the protection from sunlight spell. We don't know how many charges were in the staff (but there's likely some set number it charges to, like 30 or 50), or how many Darkon used, but he technically only need to have cast the protection on two of the vamps so far (Gontor, and the door guard). The vamps in the chamber don't need the protection spell, so he could have blown as many charges as were remaining quick vamping them. It's a final gambit, right? So no need to keep charges in the staff. Also, he presumably finished up learning the spell himself, so he might have a few castings as well (so maybe didn't even need to use charges on the other two).
If the staff had say 50 charges when "full", and maybe the protection costs 1 and the quick vamp costs 3, it's quite possible that there could have been enough left to vamp the 12 I count so far (Gontor, the door guard, and the 10 vamps that just ran into the room).
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And Gontor still appears to be a thrall so he couldn't have helped (and wouldn't know the spells required anyway). Are they all supposed to be Stonerate guys? Because anyone's bodyguard or cleric would be forbidden to touch. And agreed that all those dudes on the floor seems to be breaking the rules. Anyway, probably shouldn't take too much from a short comic but it seems wobbly to me.
Yeah. They're either still considered to be part of the Creed or worshipers of Hel. If still the Creed (well, or anything that's not a representative in the moot itself), this makes then neutral parties for the purposes of the Godsmoot (since Darkon was able to kill them without any issues). But if that's the case, then they're not limited to the "two bodyguards" rule, but *also* not protected from anyone else. Which would lead to a pretty quick wiping of the vampires in the room (cause... high level clerics, with bodyguards). If they're followers of Hel, then they're breaking some pretty core rules, which would also result in them getting wiped pretty quickly. The only wiggle I can see is if the one appointed to be the new high priest is protected (but not from Roy), but the rest are open targets. Which could lead to a grand melee, where everyone else could target all the vamps *except* the new high priest (and she can't target them), with Roy being able to target anyone (and be targeted by them, making him perhaps a prime initial target).
I could see how, in the confusion, several of the combatants might not realize what they are allowed and not allowed to do. Which could result in a few deaths, but again, if that was the goal, then why bother with the teleport orb? That plan *only* makes sense if there's an assumption that a vote tally status quo will be maintained until the clan leaders vote is counted. If they could just barge in with a bunch of technically unaligned vampires and kill folks, why not just do that? They'd only need to take out one of the nay votes to win. I suppose there's another wiggle where maybe the number of priests in attendance isn't limited as is the number of bodyguards, and thus they can all claim to be protected (with perhaps some funny reference to that one time when Loki used the same loophole in the past). Which would put us back into the stalemate situation. With the exception of Roy being able to attack them and be attacked by them (which could be problematic for him, since he's *not* a high level cleric).
I'm kinda leaning towards the last scenario, since it allows for the "teleport to the dwarven leaders and dominate them" plan to go forward, while also maintaining the "Roy vs the vampire(s)" conflict. Which might not be as dire as it seems, given that the Creed folks are all more or less out of spells, and Roy's pretty good at resisting their dominate (and presumably none of them are as high level as Darkon). It would become a straight up physical fight, and most of them probably aren't anywhere near as capable in a fight as he is (even with extra vamp levels). Add in the timely arrival of Belkar, and Darkon's whole plot could fail before he gets a chance to dominate many of the dwarf leaders (but perhaps he manages to cause some serious damage in the process, thus fulfilling the prophecy?). Dunno. It could kinda go any direction at this point.
It could very well be that the whole thing is also a lie and he has no intention of going forward with the domination plot (cause it's problematic as I mentioned earlier). He might just release a ton of unaligned vamps into the chamber to cause chaos, and if it works out for Hel vote wise, that's great, and if not, he's on his way to the gate to destroy it (which I think is a much more doable plan given the relative ease with which they've been able to almost accidentally destroy the others), while Roy and team think he's going after the clan leaders. But hey. Never know with this strip.
