The Tower In The Sky 022
└ posted on Tuesday, 9 July 2013, by Novil
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- Viviana: But there’s still that darn detector…
- Viviana: Maybe it’s easier to just cast a hole into the prison wall.
- Eike: You seem to be carrying an unregistered magic item. We have to search your pockets to know what it is.
- Ilias: Well, all right.
- Eike: I can’t find anything.
- Korahan: Me neither.
- Eike: Strange, maybe a false alarm.
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Naaah, sneaking in a magic item, even such a small one, probably won’t work in a high security prison…
What sort of startling revelation has Viviana come to? dun dun duuun…
Forget “sneaking past the detector”, they’re gonna do it Matrix style”.
“Let’s give that darn detector a good reason to ring!”
Offline wrote:
Oops, broken link! Matrix style
Chehkov’s socketed crystal?
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2011/11/09/the-red-hall-008/
Guard 1 ‘Execution day, let’s have some fun’
Guard 2 ‘Fun?!’
Guard 1 ‘We’ll set the alarm to ultrasonic and if it goes off everyone will be knocked out.’
Guard 2 ‘Won’t that affect us as well?’
Guard 1 ‘Nope!’ *Holds up a pair of glowy earplugs ‘Got your marker? I’m going after the nobles if it trips’
Ah, Ilias. Is your moment coming? I know you two are trying, but I’m still waiting for that little quip from our protagonist that makes me remember him. I’m not saying rush to the point in the plot where he does something great, but rather something proactive on his end rather than reactive, whether in a conversation or an event, to help keep him from being completely overshadowed by everyone else.
Criticism aside, nice page. Powree is still in top form, and the plot device the shadowdancers have just found is one I hadn’t expected – who knows just what twists we’ll see when it comes to the prison break!
I think she’s keying on “false alarm”.
I sense a diversion tactic.
One of the things I have learned to watch for in network security.
Supposed you had a car somebody else wanted (without doling out the cash you did), but the car had a very good alarm system installed.
step 1: trigger alarm
step 2: hide while owner investigates alarm
step 3: wait for owner to get back in bed and get comfortable
step 4: repeat steps 1 thru 3 until owner turns off alarm
step 5: take car
works for most security systems when the alarms are automated because the people in charge are usually fools.
@ Mr_Nabby: I dont think she’s gonna try to sneak it in but use it to cause a disraction instead
So that’s how you spell the sound of an alarm…
“Oh Snap!” It would seem she has yet more ideas.
…Ding! They walk through the detector. It goes off. They go oops, this magic crystal! Sorry bout that. Then they walk in armed to the damn teeth.
Magic light bulbs have filaments? I never knew.
🙂
Squire James wrote:
Oh, maybe she plans on doing a “The boy who cried wolf” kind of thing! Trigger the alarm when the regular guards comes in for work so many times that they won’t even bother with the security check anymore…
@ Valkeiper2012:
@ Mr_Nabby:
The same basic plot was used in the Peter O’Toole/Audrey Hepburn movie How to Steal a Million.
O’Toole and Hepburn wanted to steal a statue from a museum. The statue was protected by an unbreachable security system. They hid and set off the alarm again and again and again. Finally the museum staff got tired of the “false” alarms and turned off the system.
Um.. someone wanna tell me what the heck that is? Was it explained earlier?
@ Nick/Tyrong:
It is a crystal slot. It is where you equip a magic crystal to your weapon.
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2011/11/09/the-red-hall-008/
In Illias case, it gives his sword an Ice Strike.
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2011/11/19/the-red-hall-018/
I’ll bet this is going to come down to the same principle as the guy who was never caught stealing wheelbarrows.
Am I the only one seeing things like this over the comic:
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@ Crystalgate:
Guess so.
And so the previous page was not an idea from Vivi, but rather an “Ilias Sensor”. Mhm, I get it now.
@ Valkeiper2012:
@ Mr_Nabby:
I don’t think Viviana will try the repeated-false-alarms trick. She likes to plan for everything that might happen; she won’t settle for a plan that fails if the guards don’t turn off the magic detector. And that trick only works if you can convince the guards that the alarm is malfunctioning; if they find the magic item that set it off, they’ll know it’s working normally and will leave it on. Airport security doesn’t turn off their metal detectors just because they’ve been finding a lot of metal buckles, keys, loose change, etc.
@ Falcon:
I think you’re halfway there. Mask the fact that they’re carrying wands by also carrying magic crystals that can be demonstrated to be harmless. But if you’ve ever been through an airport metal detector, you’ll know that the guards will just set the crystal-decorated objects aside and scan the people again to confirm that they don’t have any other magic items.
So the wands will have to be concealed inside the items that have the decoy crystals. That’s the only place the guards can’t scan separately from the crystals. If it’s possible to do another type of scan to confirm the crystal’s function, the wands may have to be shielded too.
The guards will probably confiscate all weapons, so swords and daggers are out. It has to be something innocuous that they’d wear or carry anywhere, and which could have magic crystals for decoration or magical functions.
DontLookAtMe wrote:
You might be on to something. This is what I thought of when I first read this page, too. However, I can’t help but suspect that since this is so obvious, it might be a red herring planted by Novil to distract us from Viv’s real plan.
If magical pommel crystals are as common in the Gaia-verse as suggested by the expressions in the last panel, wouldn’t that been one of the first things they would have checked? You have to assume that people would be coming and going all the time through the portals, and it would be fairly common for them to be carrying weapons.
My personal favorite would be to have them come in from either the floor or the ceiling. There has to be be some reason for the Wizard Wing to be located on the second floor (third floor for Americans) (SD-14).
PMark wrote:
That last sentence should read:
Sorry about that.
Thought they were going to go TSA on Ilias there.
*slips on latex glove* I’m sorry sir, but I need you to bend over.
how about she has a relitivly minor item that the gaurds get they wil think they got it and sence this place is not america and there for they don’t have the internet or any equivlent yet they would not suspect what she does witch have the cristal be on a neakless and then hid it in a boot becuse the people who are gaurding the prison are extreamly self sure or rather the guards guarding the prison are
PMark wrote:
Or maybe Novil is just teasing us with a hint about part of Viviana’s plan. On the previous page she was pondering four problems. She apparently thought of a solution to at least one of those problems, but she still needed a way to smuggle the wands in. The wands will undoubtedly help with the rest of the plan, but what is the rest of the plan?
PMark wrote:
I don’t think their expressions suggest that pommel crystals are common. I think Eike is just embarrassed that it was in plain sight, and Korahan’s hand at his chin suggests that he’s thinking how useful it’d be to put a crystal on his dagger’s pommel. Since it didn’t occur to them to check his sword, pommel crystals must be relatively uncommon, at least among the Shadowdancers. But it may be fairly common to have sword hilts decorated with nonmagical jewels.
Maybe have ALL the alarms go off at once? Then the guards won’t know that Lilith’s alarm going off is the one they should be paying attention to.
DontLookAtMe wrote:
Could be. That is equally likely, I’ll admit.
Nearly every sword or weapon we’ve seen so far is magical in someway. And it didn’t occur to them to check the sword? I’m not buying it.
Well, PMark, that might just be it – since everyone is used to magical weapons, it did not occur to them to see it as the source of the alarm. But the specific wording of Eike was about an “unregistered” magical item, which might mean that magical items are registered as “part” of the person wearing/using it (or that every single item has a specific “signature” that can be “encoded” to not register?). Anyway, this is the first time Ilias brings his sword into the Shadowdancer’s Den, correct? But since he has been given “clearance” (you see how relaxed they act around him, even with the alarm going off), they did not take into consideration that his “loadout” has changed. (Read: That he was previously not allowed to carry his weapons in there.)
@ Adaon:
I agree with your logic. he apparently has not brought the crystal in his pommel before and THAT caused the alarm.
I can see several ways that particular aspect of automated alarms (technical or magical) could be used
They say the greatest hackers hack people, not systems. What I would be thinking at this point would be to magically enchant something small. Sand or pebbles or gravel and get everyone to visit lillith the day before the execution. Granted that the uselessly enchanted pebbles are enough to set off the scanner, and with the very high flow of visitors they would just assume the scanner was broken.
Problem with that though, is everyone bought the lilli is a treasonous friend killing bad person story.
Adaon wrote:
No, I’m afraid that won’t fly either. If everyone uses magical weapons, then every time somebody comes through wearing a new “unregistered” weapon, it would have set off the alarm. That has to be a fairly common cause of the alarm going off. So an unregistered weapon is going to be one of the FIRST things they are going to look for.
I wonder how Viviana brought through the Avaril without setting off the alarm (TS-08). Did their alarm already have the Avaril’s magical signature on file? Somehow I doubt that. Where did they get it if it has been locked up in the Baldor’s wall safe for ten years? And don’t say that it is because she’s the leader and the alarm won’t trip on her. If that were true, it would be a huge gaping hole in their security. All their enemies would have to do is plant a magical homing device on her, and when she pops in, they would know exactly where to find her. It wouldn’t even have to be a homing device. A magical listening and/or viewing device planed on her would quite useful to her opponents, as well.
Nivarion wrote:
Great idea. Won’t work. Lilith isn’t allowed any visitors. (SD-47)
@ Nathan:
They probably won’t do that for the same reason they don’t blow up the entire building, it costs too many resources and will only make SNEAKING in harder
Why *is* he bringing his sword in anyway?
Amusing that I did not think of this when I first read this page but what if Ryn sneaks an item into the prison? He should be trusted enough that the guards wont turn him away for causing a “false alarm.”
Silhalnor wrote:
Good question. I can think of two reasons. One, it’s fairly common for men to carry swords in that day and age. Two, perhaps he wants to cross blades with some of their better swordsmen. You would expect the Shadowdancers to have at least one sword master, maybe even two or more. Ilias needs the practice; plus he might learn a thing or two.
Perhaps, but would they wish to risk their inside man on a scheme that could easily fail? I’m not saying they wouldn’t do it, but they are going to weigh the risks carefully. They could choose to send somebody who was expendable.
Okay, how’s this scheme sound to you?
Ryn is tasked with updating the prison’s security, right? Being the eager beaver he is, he will want to take some blueprints and/or schematics home with him so he can do some work at home. The items aren’t that secret, but some minimum level of security is required. Using a magically sealed scroll tube to take them home in would meet that requirement. He does this for a day or two until the guards get use to him carrying it back and forth. That’s when he places some wands inside the tube.
To make the scheme a little better, they could put ribs in the tube to make insertion and retrieval of the papers easier. It’s less friction that way. The ribs would make perfect hiding places for wands and other magical devices so even if the guards do look inside, they will only see the papers. They won’t think to look in the ribs.
“I know! We’ll sneak stuff in disguised as WEAPONS!”
…
That had better not be the plan. ;-p
@ O-(-‘.’Q):
LOL!!
That would really be funny.
@ Mr_Nabby:
Ah. Thank you.
You made some respectable points right now there. I seen the internet for your issue determined most individuals goes along with along with your website.
I can’t help but feel that the obvious solution isn’t hers.
Sure, loading everyone down with magical stuff so that the guards eventually give up could work. Or, it could make the guards wonder why everyone entering is carrying so much magical junk, on the day of an execution, that they triple security.
@ Valkeiper2012:
This is very true: in China, people will pay companies to turn OFF the alarms on their motor scooters because passing cars set them off so often. It makes for very easily stolen motor scooters! Same in this situation, probably.
I watched “How to Steal a Million” a few days before catching up with this comic. This here plan could have come straight out of that movie.
Finally the sword is relevant! Man, I’ve been waiting for that early comic with the sword breaky thingy to mean something for so long now. . .
I think she’ll do this to sneak in The Avaril! (and lose it…)