Level 6: #14
Chapter: Comic, Level 6 — Fangs for Nothing
The Knights of the Ruined Table (my D&D group) whittled the excellent selection of vampire names down to 10 finalists.
A big Thank You to everyone who voted!
Rusty & Co.
Monstrous Misadventures! Updated every Wednesday at noon, EST.
Ah the reliability of the paladin’s bluff. Gods bless them not one of them can do it well enough to save their spades.
The kraken obviously wasn’t buying it the panel before, so it was not merely a lie but a futile one.
Based on the expression of the puppet?
That makes them all the more cunning. No one expects the paladin to lie when he does.
Mimic just can’t win.
I want to say that’s just another illustration of Madeline’s low WIS, but from what I remember of the Paladin’s Handbook, they’re actually required to act like that.
There’s a reason they’re often called Lawful Stupid.
Successful bluff checks get in the way of smiting things.
So true, why trick something when it is so much easier/funner/more cleansing the world of evil to just kill them outright? Its much nicer to just kill them outright than to trick them first.
Pretty sure Madeline dumped Intelligence. She needs Wisdom for spells.
As for the Paladin Code, it does require that the paladin “act with honor”, which includes “not lying”, so this could be a bit of an edge case.
Unless they’re playing Pathfinder, in which case they got rid of that silly MAD problem and made their spells sanely Charisma-based, like the rest of the class.
Does Madeline have any spells?
Actually, a paladin’s not REQUIRED to point out when somebody else in the party lies. They have to stop evil deeds… and in this case, the lie is preventing the KRAKEN from doing several evil deeds. Evil, bending-the-wrong-way, making-you-cry deeds.
Except she doesn’t appear to realise that the “king” is indeed a Kracken. That or she’s playing along/too polite to comment.
She’s not stupid.
She’s naive and trusting with a very sunny disposition. Its rather endearing. ^_^
Also, she can detect evil. Maybe the Kraken has gone benevolent.
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
I’m dying over here. Breaking out the sweater and slippers now.
I got tired waiting for trolley to come by…
…Aren’t humans still/again in the Monster Manual?
We’re not in the 3.5e MM. I don’t really pay any attention to 4e, and I don’t have any earlier ones available to check.
Well She could pass for a berzerker, or a lycanthrope of some sort, a Doppleganger, some sort of ghost or really fresh zombie,a half centaur, or an albino drow…
Lots of options when you think about it.
… King Friday XIII?
YES! You win life now
I love how the puppets hands make evil eyes glaring down at Mimic.
It is the most unamused I have ever seen the king of make-believe be
This is the best kraken.
Ever.
If she succeeds and puts monsters back to normal, it would be kinda sad. No more kraken puppet theater. No more gorgon pizza. No more recitation from gibbering mouthers.
Maybe she’ll just stop it from producing more such odd monsters.
I like how Mimic does a Face-Palm without a face or a palm. And Madeline isn’t just simple; she’s a deep-down, baked-on simple. Lying: BAD; imminent wanton slaughter of intelligent creature: GOOD!
Paladins. The bane of all bluff checks.
Reminds me of the story where the entire party was (2nd ed) multi-class thief/(something) except the paladin. SO whenever an enemy showed up the entire party *disappeared* except the paladin, the monster, and (one round later) about 50 assorted daggers and short-swords sticking out of the monster’s back.
Which is basically how it would go down if Madeline and Doogan somehow teamed up, come to think of it.
Even in 1st & 2nd editions, Paladins were supposed to act with honor, etc. Most GM’s (depending on specefic LG god(dess) worshiped) would allow them to do so in a good cause, even if they had to preform penance later. They do lie poorly though. I have very seldom seen a Paladin played any way, but Lawful Stupid 🙁 The few which were not played that way were a real treat to watch, regretablly they were the minority 5% of Paladins.
I once played a Paladin with the Swashbuckler kit. It was fun.
“Good” isn’t generally a problem, but yes – for the rest of the group, the best paladins are those who are fairly relaxed about the “lawful” bit. Someone who understands that posting bail for the barbarian is part of the job, and that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is good policy for dealing with the rogue.
My paladin takes a “my job is stressful enough, so I didn’t just see you apply poison to your implements of what I am going to assume is not torture” approach to the morality of other party members. And I have Very good argument for why not beheading those helpless opponents would have been a violation of the code.
Just a thought. If King Kraken doesn’t smell of vinegar and burlap, Madeline might even be doing the smart thing by convincing his majesty that she isn’t a rakshahshahsaha
heres the real rub, the actual krackin would attack and be cleaver.. so i think becuase shes acting good the good king krackin will let her pass where before the kracken would have “popped” up more puppets guards, horsemen and loyal knights ect.. to “defend” the palace from muarding monsters. which is what i beleive has been happening all along thus the stains on the floor walls and moat.
Facehandle.
Or rather, liphandle…
I like how the puppet king’s hands appear to form a pair of menacing eyes, for a large blue face with no mouth/nose. (Yes I have an overactive imagination.)