3359 Get Ready For The Big One
Hey gang.
What day is it today? Oh, Monday.
Sorry about the delay on the flashback strip. It’s been kicking my butt as it’s a tough one to write well. I’ll get it posted soon.
In the meantime, yesterday I ran Al Qadim (AD&D2e Arabian Nights) and it was awesome. There was even a pair of dragons in a dungeon! (Well, they fought a couple of Vishaps in a lair). Here’s a pic I drew for my personal gallery in honour of the campaign. Enjoy!
-Rich BK Morris
EDIT: Note – I only drew the characters. The graphics (corner scroll, logo and bg map) are all part of the campaign packs.
A history of the World!
Part 1
While I enjoy a good backstory almost as much as Trevor does, I can’t shake the feeling that when everything is said and done, Ranna’s going to get off Scott free.
Too many people have suffered at her hand and in her name for all to be forgiven, she still needs to pay.
I’m sure that there will be some consequences. After all the mages are still gathering energy. If I wanted to take a stab at how things will turn out I would say that at the end of the backstory both Ranna and Ch’Thier will wind up in that pocket dimension. Maybe intentionally, as in they both step back so they don’t continue to interfere, or not. I could certainly see the mages firing off the spell anyway or *having* to cast it in order to prevent some sort of collateral damage and Ch’Their shielding Ranna or just not letting her spend eternity alone.
At this point I’m not sure an eternity of imprisonment is severe enough for what Ranna deserves. Though I am going to enjoy seeing how this all ends, I just hope it’s a satisfying enough conclusion for all the build up 😛
Trying to understand something here: is what Ranna did worse than what happened during the Coup d’Drow because of the scale or what?
The scale is part of it, yes, but also her actions beyond simply killing people. She and her followers are rounding up innocent people and brainwashing/corrupting them into committing heinous acts against their will.
It might just be my interpretation, but I find mind control to be a far more evil than simple murder. But then, evil is often subjective in its severity.
Though I will note; I am speaking ONLY of my own and interpretation and by no means assuming or dictating anyone else’s opinion.
Weren’t the rival DM’s doing that before Ranna stepped in and cranked things up to 11?
And if those people are "committing heinous acts against their wills", should they really be held accountable to them?
The ones who’re brainwashed? No. Those are on Ranna. The DMs who were brainwashing victims before Ranna got her hooks into them would be held accountable.
She’s pulling the strings. Every evil deed her brainwashed and corrupted followers do in her name comes back on her and she needs to be held accountable for that.
Can ink of two who *were* held accountable, at least by the readers, and whose demise was cheered
If you’re talking about Celena and Meegs…I think most people DO feel bad for Celena. Meegs, on the other hand, has been selfish from the start, and willingly leapt at the chance to join the Rannites and save her own skin. I think she’s a funny character, and wouldn’t mind seeing a distant epilogue where she exploits her status as living history to give the future folk a tilted view of Ages past and her own importance, but she is NOT an innocent victim.
How is Meegs any more (or less) selfish than any of the other cast?
You claim she ‘willingly leapt at the chance to join the Rannites and save her own skin’? Hmm, must have missed the page where that was shown (or even hinted at)
*Celena* was the one who willingly joined and was even happy to throw her own former team-mates onto the grinder to save her own skin, or… did you forget what happened to the former rogue of the party?
These strips are supposed to show how she cares more about her opportunity for advancement than for Eddy’s wellbeing.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/0249-the-little-apprentice-who-could-and-made-damn-well-sure-she-was-gonna/
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/0665-that-sounds-familiar/
This strip is supposed to show how she even has a supernatural aura of not-good about her at times.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/0999-congratulations-all-round-then-2/
The whole "Sorceress’ Assistant" chapter is about her abusing magic and nature for selfish purposes and then discarding it when it doesn’t live up to expectations.
Most of her appearances in the "Night Queen" chapter emphasize how flippant she is towards social propriety, and certainly how she uses and abuses her apprentices for her own physical needs.
This strip again suggests Meegs uses her apprentice for sexual reasons.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/2449-impure-sight/
Her reaction to her apprentices’ deaths is getting angry because she has to audition another one. Not remorse or mourning for a lost life.
This strip is supposed to show how she converted at just the threat of torture, as opposed to holding out valiantly as she claimed.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3038-the-mighty-meegs/
I don’t know if this implies to you that she’s MORE or LESS selfish than any of the other cast. But my intention was always to cast her in an unpleasant light. She’s a nasty human being.
Rich cited all the strips I might have mentioned on Meegs, and then some. (And NR, the last one he linked, 3038, is why I say Meegs leapt at the chance to join the Rannites willingly.)
Celena, on the other hand, held out under Dark Mistress brainwashing for as long as anyone ever does (excepting true badasses like Maula, or cloudcookoolanders like Elzear’bith), and when her own willpower was failing, made a last desperate appeal to Ch’their…and got Ranna on the line instead.
Yes, her new brainwashed personality then threw her rogue under the bus as well, but I don’t hold the "real" Celena responsible for that, any more than the rest of the brainwashed minions. Presumably, even before Ranna’s gorgonizing program, the DMs used magic and alchemy as well as mundane brainwashing techniques, and most of their victims seem incapable of converting back without counter-magic.
Never said Meegs was a *nice* person, was asking how she was any worse or better than anyone else. Or, is it because she is human, she should automatically be better than the Drow or Orcs?
What about Sahar? She converted in the time it took the Rannite’s to burrow up from below to when she confronted her mother as a Gorgon. That was what, two or three strips?
And thank you, had missed that page where Meegs converted so quickly
Ehh I leave out "deserve" in my idea of ethics (which is way too influenced by D&D tbh). Because what an ‘evil’ deserves is frequently undoable. All that you accomplish when you try to make someone bad suffer for what they did is hurt yourself. Also, you give them a chance to turn the tables. If you really *need* to put someone out of your misery do it and move on. Though I prefer to redeem if at all possible.
Perhaps they are going to fire it off to vent their anger, that they of all people are the ones, who couldn’t listen the story…
Something definately happens, as we have seen a glimpse of the future, and that seemed to be rather short in (if not completely without) magic, and also gave the impression (at least to me), that gods weren’t that much present anymore either.
I understand what you’re saying but I have trust in Mr. Morris as a storyteller. He hasn’t let me down yet!
He surprises, amuses and challenges his readers to think things through- BK is a great story-teller.
As for Ranna- shes a god and punishing her will make her repeat the cycle of revenge on and on…
Sometimes saying "its okay", even though we want to punish, is far better. Especially from a teschers Point of View
That is true, I’m certainly looking forwards to new comics (Hell I’ve checked this site pretty much every day for the last thirteen years more or less :P), but it’s hard not to dread the possibility of Ranna getting away with everything when you’re so invested in the characters.
Though I would like to say thank you Rich, and I hope the story’s conclusion is an awesome one.
You say that Ranna’s greatest crime is forcing others to commit heinous acts against their will…but if the dynamic here really is "the beliefs of mortals shape the nature of their gods", then that blunder by Ch’thier’s priests in casting Ranna as the goddess of cruelty might have forced HER into heinous acts she never would have chosen.
Try not to dread what you think MIGHT happen until the story plays out. We don’t yet fully understand what’s going on here, which is the whole reason this history flashback will be cool.
That would basically put her on par with just about any other God out there.
When all is said and done, she *is* still a Goddess!
The best they can hope for, is to do like the Drow did with Lollth and kick her out of their dimension and lock the door so she can’t manifest… again
Maybe not. This started (two pages ago) with Marion calling the whole "we can’t be without each other" speech "utter crap". So maybe she plans to finish the backstory (hopefully not too soon) with "and therefore we can totally punish Ranna".
Maybe.
Also, even if she does, Ranna can still get out of it easily because Ch’Thier is just too good.
the only punishment worthy of her crimes, send Ranna through the 7 mile spanking machine.
Two million years? You weren’t kidding, this is going to be the mother of all backstories.
I love how Ben is there to make certain Marion keeps her purple prose in line XD and Trevor is so adorable.
And how old is Ben?
Old enough to know better?
Trevor… is all of us XD
… and Leland is all of us on the inside 😀
Hooray for happy kitty! Leland, I hope you have a lot more blank notebooks. I expect you’ll need them before Lady Marion finishes relating this history.
all the bards in the area just made the same sound probably in harmony …..
…million?
Let’s just hope Trevor can hold it together and doesn’t explode (literally) 😀
Trevor’s mind overloads and he sanity goes bye-bye.
Perhaps that is how Captain Fang occurred? Last time she had to remind them of, well, everything? (I don’t really think that, but it would be amusing!)
Those are lot of years…can we trust her memory is flawless?
That’s what Ben is for
And… even if her memory *is* flawless, it may still not be how things *really* happened, let along for *why* they happened, or how
Yep, those are also another questions (but yes, until another character make apparence and correct her in some details, she is only telling us the truth as now, she is the creator talking XD)
Now the real question is, was Ben there too? Or he just heard the story a "couple" of times?
Lore-gasm incoming!
Oh, Trevor, my Trevor. Your joygasm is so adorable.
And Leland, I hope you have multiple volumes and inkpots handy. You’re going to need them. ?
The only thing that could add to Trevor’s delight is a fresh pot of tea and some sandwiches.
I suspect there’s one more thing. He’s no doubt dearly hoping for news that C’rhynne survived the battle.
R.I.P. Leland’s hand.
I wonder what will disintegrate first. The wrist-joint, the knuckles, or the fingertips
Place your bets here folks.
Elves and immortality. You got to love it.
Two million years feel like stretching it though, even going by chance, statistically a freak accident, or one of the many, many wars that must have been, would have been very likely to have killed her by now..
.. unless she also has godlike powers, being the elder sister to a mother of two goddesses.
Given she explicitly stated last strip that her sister was Goddess of Balance, I’m thinking she may be a deity herself.
It’s possible that after the first ten thousand of years she accumulated enough power to not die easily.
Historsquee–add that to the names for Trevor’s reaction.
For Trevor this is even better than talking to his goddess – it’s HISTORY-TIME 😀
Gotta love the lil’ one.
I have to say I’m impressed at how Marion retained her humanity (so to speak) through 2 million years. Or were there phases when everything got too much and she spent a few millennia napping?
One of the many powers of music is that it is Play – and Play keeps you young.
t!
I need a spatula, medical tape and popcorn. Oh and if anyone sees the left half of my lower cerebellum please let me know. I need it back.
I need a spatula, medical tape and popcorn. Oh and if anyone sees the left half of my lower cerebellum please let me know. I need it back.
I just hope there’s a deity-level "Hold Person" in effect! While it looks from the background like everything’s stopped, I wouldn’t put it past some of the baddies to at the very least take the opportunity to be heading for the hills!
More powerful than that. There’s the Dramatic Convention ensuring that people will not act while an important conversation is going on
(Believe me I just finished a thriller where the hero and heroine have a ten minute conversation about disarming a bomb that they know is due to go off in 3 minutes)
Zen Aku in Power Rangers Wild Force does not adhere to the Dramatic Convention as he attacked the Power Rangers Mid-transformation scene.
I see Ben isn’t a Beatles fan!
“It was about 20 million years ago today,
Lady Marion taught the bands to play,
They’ve been going in and out of style,
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile,
So may I introduce to you,
the elf you’ve known for all these years,
Lady Marion and her dwarf friend Ben!”
Well done! (But now it’s stuck in my head…)
You’re welcome. My work here is done. Muwahahaha! ?
I was scrolling through the comments, hoping you would do something like this. You never seem to fail me, dear Pooka.
*Hands you double chocolate chip cookies & milk*
Aw, thank you, Fang FanGirl! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. And thank you for the double chocolate cookies and milk! *nomnomnom* *wagwagwagwag
Holy crap, T’Chall…. you’re way too good at that. You’ve managed to get a mis-quoted Beatles song stuck in all our heads.
The power of pookas! ?
Also, Happy Canada Day, Rich, t!, and everyone else in that great country. ??
"Taught the *bards* to play" might have been even more thematically appropos.
I say might because far be it from me to nitpick this brilliance.
Oh, yes, bards would have been much better! Well done!
That is soooo stuck in my head now… At least I am in good company, it seems. 😛 You wouldn’t happen to be a bard-pooka, would you?
Welllllllllll…… [smiles innocently. As innocently as a fox-pooka can smile, anyway]
Help I was thinking of!
When I was younger so much younger than today
When the world was so much younger…….(Ben cuts in)……
Oh, yeah! That one for sure!
Sorry for the late reply.
I have a suspicion that after this is over that Trevor is going to try and talk Lady Marion and Ben setting up residence in Tempul, in a place right next door to the library, if not in the library itself. 🙂
Two million years and not a single grey hair. Impressive.
Trevor’s face in the last panel… I die from the adorable!!
Happy, happy possibly-Winnaloohoo-hoo. 🙂
Note that the all (or at least, most) of the mages in Ch’thier’s temple seem to be paying rapt attention through the portal to Heather’s story. So it looks like there probably won’t be a miscommunication where the mages went ahead working on their trap and triggered it needlessly…
Nonetheless, the two-million year time scale drives home the point that this world has been home to sapient beings trapped in technological stasis for a loooooooong time…and after the current Age, it starts advancing again. So SOMETHING big is gonna happen to alter the balance of magic, science, and the gods.
There might be some progress between then and now … but yes, two million years seems like VERY long time.
Of course, the technological advances are based on each other. It’s completely possible that something relatively small will jump-start big advancements …
… although I suspect that this would be yet another from long line of words where for some reason noone bothered with technology just because they had magic. Despite the fact that combining magic and technology can get you OVER the level of gods.
Maybe *that* is why there was no technological jump: the Gods themselves
So… Marion’s a contemporary of LOLTH? 0_0
…I cannot say I would not have the exact same reaction as Trevor.
Two million years…. No wonder that you had needed some time, Rich, to map the battle/war out lolol
No one’s said it yet? Right then.
Lady Marion of Heatherdale: So it all began…
Trevor Larkin: Write that down, write that down!
Trevor may be excited now, but this is only part of the story. Both Ford Prefect & Arthur Dent were witness to Earth’s history two million years ago…
Damn… two million years is far longer than I've seen as the background for a fantasy world before.