The Order of the Stick Megathread

[Aerozord]

but is escape anything? calling your attackes (err... teleports) is a trope Order of the Stick imploys almost always

[Mirai Gen]

In DND? No, but that wouldn't stop Burlew.

[krogothwolf]

I'm sure its the monster, the roaches never lie!

[Meister]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

We still dont know for sure the monster did it.

Originally Posted by Molotovich

as far as we know, dragoon doesnt have the need to breath

While we're at it, maybe when the creature talked to Haley and Belkar, there would have been an earthquake anyway and he just happened to stomp the ground at that exact point in time. And he never punched Miko and her horse through the wall - he really touched her as lightly as he could, and she launched herself through the wall to escape. She could have had a magic item for that.

[Aerozord]

as V would quickly point out. There is a vast differance between hitting something really hard and warping space-time with your mind

[Meister]

Okay, I'll bite. Who else could have done it?

[Aerozord]

well I do not know for certain, its not like there is much info of it. The ground-pound and hitting Miko are vastly different on two accounts from the teleporting. First being, they said the monster did it. After being hit through a wall Miko didn't say "oh how'd I get outside" she said "that thing hit me". The other is that things with insane levels of physical power also dont typically have arcane spells as well.

I am not saying he didn't do it, just that I dont accept 'him wanting it to happen' as being the same as making it happen. To me what will really be evident is if its explained in the near future. If not it was probably the monster, or some bigger gambit done by someone else like the IFFC. He wouldn't leave it unanswered unless it was part of some big reveal. In that situation the monster would be the most logical choice, as other options would require indirect assistance

[Meister]

After being hit through a wall Miko didn't say "oh how'd I get outside" she said "that thing hit me".

She actually didn't. We see her agreeing to the creature's game, then it cuts to the aftermath, then she rides away. No one describes the act itself, so while we assume he hit her through the wall, technically it's not necessarily what happened. See the problem with this kind of argumentation?

The other is that things with insane levels of physical power also dont typically have arcane spells as well.

Which is why it's such a big deal and why Burlew makes such a big point of showing it.

indirect assistance

Now, you got something there. Maybe there's some outside entity doing this. This entity would have to be responsible for everything impressive the creature's done so far for the narration to be consistent, but it's a possibility. Otherwise the reveal would be like:

Gasp! The Monster is really a Muscle Dragon, which everyone knows has a strength score of 100!

... and also has an epic pixie wizard following him around fulfilling wishes! Gasp! Again!

which, narratively, doesn't flow as well as if it were just either of the two.

This is not such a bad theory, come to think of it...

[Mirai Gen]

I can see either side argued for but I'm skeptical to doubt the way that Burlew set it up. While most spellcasting fits into "Teleport!" and "Fireball!" I don't think he's stated that spell-like abilities work the same way, which means "Escape!" was just the MITD wishing really really hard, and the word is unrelated.

Outside intervention, maybe the FCCC? I guess? I doubt he'd do Deus Ex Machinae and have someone completely new save V and O-Chul.

[Meister]

I dunno, if those guys had been able and willing to get V out of there they would have done it sooner, and they wouldn't even have considered the paladin. Unless doing it this way fit into their long-term plan somehow, but personally I don't feel it.