3555 Charles Loyalties
So no sooner does Rich start posting again, when Rich appears to leave you high and dry again. But this isn’t the case! Let me tell you the story:
As you may know, one of the reasons I leave great gaps in my posts is because I get busy with actual contracted work. Now, I had a few weeks where I was done a contract, and have already signed the next contract which I will start at the end of August. So I took some time to jump in and start drawing my heart out on YAFGC -not JUST because of a sense of duty to you, my beloved readers, but also because I love the world so much and I miss the characters terribly. And the storywriting.
Now, we also have booked a trip to visit family in another city, so I’m going to be flying out tomorrow morning and wont’ be back in town for 2 weeks. During which I seriously doubt I’ll be able to scan and upload whatever else I might get to draw while I’m away.
ALSO: Since I’m between contracts, it seemed that this was the only time when I could actually reasonably afford to be without a computer for a day or two, so I took this past week or more to start some badly needed renovations, re: ripping out the old 50+ year old carpeting (which is full of dust and bugs and rotten food and cat excrement) , clean the floor and put in some laminate. Which is now done. Now I’m in the process of sorting out the huge mess that is ALL MY STUFF and putting back what I want while chucking out what I no longer need.
All that to say that in all probability, there won’t be any YAFGC updates for the next two weeks. But I’ll try. I plan to bring some stuff to draw with and get some more strips done. I do start my new contract almost as soon as I get back from my trip, but I’ll make a point to upload what I’ve got and hopefully find a way to keep the trend going.
Bear with me folks!
-Rich “BK” Morris
He got the message
From his expression, I'm not sure he did…
He probably got the “You die if you disagree right now” message. I expect him to come back for revenge later. Some people just never learn.
Nope. He understood his life was at risk <i>at that moment</i>, but I'm betting he thinks it was a fluke and they were caught off guard, and that Charles wouldn't be able to stand up to them the next time they 'fronted him. Especially if they ambushed him. Bullies are like that.
<i>My username is the voting link for YAFGC at TWC.</i>
Like a boss!
"I will die protecting them"? Wow, really got your future figured out, haven't you?
That's "will" as in "am willing to", not "will" as in "am going to".
There used to be a whole web of distinctions in English between "will" and "shall" in various tenses, but now the words have pretty much merged into a vague, wibbly-wobbly ball of future stuff.
Heh, applying Doctor Who to linguistics, love it!
Interestingly, in German, going the other way on linguistic development, "wollen" (first person singular: "ich will", for comparison) exclusively covers intention or desire (literally: want) while the noun "Wille" is quite close to the English noun "will". The (non-intentional) future, meanwhile, is "werden", which covers general development stuff like "to become" and certain meanings of "to grow".
Perhaps I tend to lean a bit too much into the non-intentional use of English "will" because in school I was taught about it as a false friend back then.
And just because I've written a bit about divergent linguistic development: "mist" in English refers to what rises from a dung heap. In German, "Mist" refers to dung. For some reason, I like that example.
Maybe I should try this tactic on my wife. 😂
Please don’t.
Where you tell her, "Yes, I understand!" when she has you pushed up against a wall, threatening your throat? That could be the wise thing to do, especially if your statement is true.
Yeah, I think he got that from his, what's the term for your half-brother's adoptive mother-in-law?
Technically his half-brother is also his adoptive dad now, so alternatively adoptive father’s adoptive mother-in-law, sooo… grandma maybe?
Oh right, and his half-brother’s husband is also technically his dad now, so definitely grandma, I think?
Yeah, someone in the Bloodhand line definitely trained the lad. They fight for what they care for. Fiercely and efficiently.
Has Timmy just found his new hero?
Or a sucker…*ahem*, brave and pure-hearted adventurer to take the quest he needs done.
The kid has his sword point at an opponent's throat, and opens with a concession. That's genuine class.
t!
I wonder. Are we going to see a later strip where Faris and Naroasa sigh in shameful admission? "No… they're not wrong. Ranna altered the women who already had the seeds of darkness in them."
I mean, a lot of the women who joined did so VERY willingly. Meegs in particular. How many of them were that trope, "Retired Monster," where they might regret it NOW, but they certainly didn't back then?
Sahar and Celena were both good people before they were converted. (Sahar was arrogant, and Celena was impatient with her friends, but if those are damnation-worthy faults, then we're all in trouble.) In Sahar's case she went straight to Gorgon-stage, which might have involved more powerful mind-control magic than the DM conversion. But Celena was first made a DM and only later a gorgon, and the DM conversion alone was enough to break a presumably strong-willed cleric of Ch'Thier into a servant of Ranna.
Also, I think it's relevant that whenever we saw the Rannites capture people, they themselves seemed entirely confident that the conversion would work; there was no talk of evaluating the prisoners for inner darkness first. Occasionally the process was interrupted before it was complete — such as with ex-Queen Elzear'bith — but we never actually saw it fail.
One thing that does surprise me about Charles's stance here is that Fasi and Naroasa weren't made into DMs by the Rannites; they were OG Dark Mistresses from the Dungeon Keeper plotline. But maybe some of the original DMs balked at joining Ranna, and had to undergo further brainwashing first. Or maybe Charles doesn't know their full histories, and just assumes they were victims of wartime conversion…
I ended up going through the archives (always fun to do, given such a great comic), and found this page:https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3114-dark-mistresses-of-panic/
Yeah… these two didn't have to be forcibly converted into joining Ranna, just as they didn't have to have any magical effects needed to purge them of mental control. They were simply two people who decided to do some really nasty stuff for a really nasty boss, and then realized they'd joined the losing side.
And Did you see all the times they helping good people? Like when rescued Louis' family or in the halfling's village (where they forgive and encourage a young teen)
Maybe they hadn't a good start but it doesn't make all in them
Oh, I agree. I'm just pointing out: they did horrible stuff, of their own volition, and enjoyed it. Now they're doing good stuff… but that doesn't erase the bad anymore than the bad stuff erases the good.
It's like that episode of "Doctor Who," and "a Town Called Mercy," where the Doctor has to deal with a repentant mad scientist.
"It would be so much simpler if I was just one thing, wouldn’t it? The mad scientist who made that killing machine. Or the physician. Who’s dedicated his life to serving this town. The fact that I’m both bewilders you."
It's called "redemption". Doing good things doesn't wipe out bad things if you are doing both at the same time, but if you *stop* doing bad things and only do good from then on…
Phew, finally caught up! Count me in as another regular reader, binged this since about a month ago when I was curious about the art on this tvtropes page of all places: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThreeWishes
Randomly picked the Coup d'Drow arc to see if it was interesting and immediately the characters and story grabbed my attention, so I went back to the beginning. And that might be saying something, as I never was that interested in webcomics.
Anyway, great job with all you've created so far, and I'll be here with the rest being very curious to see what is next!
AWESOME!Thank you so much! Welcome to the gang! 😀
Yay to you, Rich, for accomplishing all that! Wow! It was actually inspiring, as i procrastinate on my own cleaning lol
Enjoy your well deserved vacation 😊
Rich, you have been busy! Congratulations on getting so much accomplished with the studio. Safe travels, and I hope you'll have a great time with the family.
Congrats on getting so much accomplished!! Enjoy your well-deserved vacation:-)
Btw, is the bear going on vaca with you?
Absolutely. Though it's actually more of a monkey.
P!napple beat me to the "Bear with me" joke, dangit!
I note the location as Costal Port City of Elegrost. I thought that Costal was a misspelling of Coastal, and when I followed the link I saw that the spelling dated all the way back to 2008 with over 60 occurrences. That would be a lot of errors to correct. Now I wonder if Costal is actually the name of the area/region/province in which Elegrost is located?
Elegrost is the kingdom. Costal is a port city in the kingdom.
Hmmm… OK. Lack of punctuation makes that confusing. My initial interpretation was that there was a misspelling and it was supposed to be Coastal City of Elegrost, with Elegrost being the name of the city. Costal, Port City of Elegrost would be clearer with the comma separating the city name from the city description.
Oh yeah!
Thing is, the way the wordpress system us set up, I can't use punctuation for the location names, especially a comma which the template uses to separate different location names. I just made the erroneous assumption that people knew that Elegrost was the Kingdom and Costal was the city because of it being established long ago. My apologies.
Would a dash work? Costal – Port City of Elegrost
Rich uses commas to separate places, so anything alone or between commas is 1 place. I do get it's a bit confusing for a newer reader, but I don't think he can change it because of it meaning to change the entire system. And I'd never wish that on anyone lol
I stand by my statement that the punch to the face was inspiried by your commitments to your free time. I too feel that pain.
It's all well worth waiting for, and Life Happens (TM) to everyone. You keep posting, and I'll definitely keep reading!
I can't resist…every time someone says "Bear with me" I just HAVE To say it:
If there's a Bear with you, you should run.
That old carpet sounded disgusting. Good to hear it's been replaced.
It's ok Rich. Muse can't be rushed.
I hope all is going well, both with renovations and new contract! (I agree with above poster who said that old carpet sounded disgusting! ) We will still be here when you find some breathing and drawing room! 🙂
…aaaand I've caught up, again; my computer died a few years ago and I lost track of YAFGC. It was a long reread of the archive but well worth it; I still love these characters.
Happy Thanksgiving!! (Yesterday…) Hope you enjoyed it 😁
Uhhhh, Rich? You're still alive, right?
My thoughts exactly, hoping Rich is still well 2 months after the last post that was promised to only be 2 weeks from the next post…
Well, usually one made promises hoping the best situation of the worst he can handle but normally when things go down continue the same way.
I don't need hope. Rich always make the way and i know he will do one more time
We only have to wait.
Yeah, but it'd be nice to know he's okay, y'know?
Completely understandable. I've heard from him (in passing) in the last few days, and he seemed well, happy, just a whirlwind of busy times and attention needed elsewhere. For what it's worth, my very brief impression was "our host seemed all right." (I completely relate; I worry, too.)
Ah, good to hear, thanks!
Glad to hear (read?) that! Thank you, I was getting really worried ))
I haven't caught up on this comic lately. Is there a particular reason she couldn't just change her clothes?
Is the link to the comixblog broken for anyone else?
Question for all the actual gamers here, go with D&D 5th Edition or Pathfinder? I recently moved from the USA to Bulgaria so I'll be recruiting a few expats for weekend games. Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the systems, so which would have less of a learning curve? And has anyone created a Black Mountain campaign for their own game?
D&D 5th is definitely easier to learn, it's made for being rules light, while Pathfinder is made to have rules for anything from combat to picking your nose.
Thanks for the info. I’ll look closer at 5th edition.
Yo Rich you still alive buddy?
Yes, he was reported to be well but just too busy with outside work to post just upthread of your post.
Super, thanks!
Happy Birthday, Rich! Wishing you all the best, thanks for a wonderful comic, and that you'll have a wonderful day.