Quote Originally Posted by mouser9169 View Post
I don't see the IFCC having too much of an interest in this event.

The giants are a hindrance, but the party won't have too much trouble defeating them, even without V's help. Narratively, my guess is that this encounter will add to the Andi vs Bandana dynamic which will ultimately remove the Mechane from the playing field.
I wouldn't casually dismiss the giants like this, especially since the last few strips have done nothing but elaborate on just how much of a threat they were. This strip was the talk about how cleric spells could shut down the Mechane, last one was the threat of the engines and the risk of mutiny, a few strips before that was all the talk about turning back and fleeing... Sure, we *also* saw displays of how much more powerful the PCs are than they first were, but giants are still threatening, especially if in large numbers. That natural reach can prove quite treacherous.

Add to this that there are now high level giants to challenge them.

And that the party is, again, split. They didn't learn from their "don't split the party!" book (which I admit to not having read). Haley is no longer invisible, her damage output will now be incredibly low. The giants probably have buffs to protect themselves from many, if not most, of V's spells. Belkar is all alone against countless giants. Roy and Elan are being completely worthless on board the Mechane.

The IFCC could seal the fate of this fight. Will they? I have no idea. We don't know what their agenda is. Last time, they made sure that V couldn't tell Roy to not smash it. But to what ends? Team Evil arrived shortly thereafter... maybe the IFCC doesn't actually want Team Evil to succeed? If they know of the Dark One's plan, there's little reason for them to want to let that happen. But they also wanted V to get Xykon moving out of Gobbotopia...