thinkslogically wrote:It's especially weird since it's Ward that uses the gendered pronoun in the first place. What's wrong with "it"? Anyway, whatever.
It does seem weird that the klik that ate the racist sword hilt wasn't aware that it was holding a shapeshifting item given that the consequences are so horrible for its species (and the world). Since the klik ate the shapeshifting weapon without a second thought, this seems like the sort of accident that must happen relatively frequently (based on the fact that this seems to be a world with a high number of magical items, and the kliks live within a few days walk of Brassmoon city). This in turn begs the question of why there aren't more demi-god kliks running around taking over the world, and why no-one seems to know anything about them (except Biscuit).
...
That's assuming Ward is telling the truth and isn't just dicking everyone around of course
Good point!
"Dicking everyone around" seems like the sort of thing Ward does automatically every moment of every day whenever the opportunity arises. If he is by any chance telling the truth, it is probably not the whole truth. So this opens up the field for speculating what might have actually happened.
We're going to have a good while to play with this -- unless Thunt happens to settle the matter with a comment outside the comic. He's said that after this page the focus is going to shift to the GAP. So... what could have actually happened?
We do know that Kliks vary widely in maturity. There are many Klik babies and youngsters floating around in this valley, and then there are those wiser, more powerful merged multi-Klik beings. It may be that normally the younger ones are not allowed out of this supposedly safe magic-item-free region until they've learned to detect magic that would be dangerous.
* The first Klik we met, the one who bonded with Dies, had been captured and carried away. It had not received its full education; we don't know how old it was, but it was not very experienced. It might have spent a lot of time in captivity. (No need to expand here on how badly those good intentions went wrong.)
* Ward, before it ate and merged with the cursed sword (thereby acquiring speech and a negative charisma stat), could not have been very old, either. Bowst brought the sword into the valley; Ward gobbled it up. NOW it is able to tell things about a magic item's properties, but that may be a direct result of its own unfortunate experience.
* The acquisition of characteristics from items eaten may not be confined to magic alone. Forgath's armour and shield weren't magic, but they were still finely crafted dwarven workmanship and had great sentimental value to Forgath. Now Salt, who ate the most, seems to be curiously inclined to hang about near Forgath. This isn't proof of anything, but it's interesting.
*
If Ward is telling the truth, in whole or in part (a very big if), dropping major magic items into the Valley of the Kliks is a really, really bad idea. It's a good thing there are hardly ever battles to the death on that bridge up there! Suppose Forgath had
won his fight with Kore and had managed to get the Dragon's Maw gate open again to join Minmax and the GAP? The Axe of Racism would still have fallen, would still have been gobbled up, There'd still be a terrible, warped Klik baby who'd have to be tracked down and killed for the safety of the world -- we just wouldn't know about it.
...or worse. Suppose it was cursed Kore who had fallen from the bridge and been healed. Suppose his curse is built into something he's carrying, and a Klik ate it.
Yeah, this could have gone a lot worse.