3528 Taurenil Disputandum
Apologies for the site disappearing earlier.
It seems that Dreamhost has decided once again that YAFGC is taking up a dangerous amount of their resources and disabled it temporarily. I’m in talks with them YET AGAIN to find out what they want me to fix, and hopefully it will stay up until the next time they decide I’m not able to maintain it properly.
If the site disappears again soon, please don’t panic, I’m trying to stabilize the site again, and there will be more YAFGC updates soon. I’m just in a state of busy what with having got back from a holiday recently and now the kids are starting school today and my wife and I are starting back up in our jobs for the year.
I have not giving up on YAFGC and there’s lots more story to tell. Especially here with Lucas and Cadugan solving the mystery!!! 😀
-Rich “BK” Morris
EDIT: (Sunday Sept.18)
I just uploaded an entire week’s worth of YAFGC UPDATES! Starting tomorrow there’s going to be a week’s worth of regular posts, and I’ve got a week’s worth to upload for next week as well! Thanks for your patience, hopefully we can keep this momentum rolling!
-Rich “BK” Morris
Ha! Maula isn’t ready to eliminate herself as a suspect just yet. I believe she’s going to offer a few insights that nobody else has considered.
Abbot is *very* eager to stop suspecting Maula… too bad eliminating the assumed motive doesn’t prove anything.
I guess it will be about the assumed time of the murder, and who was where at that point – she is one of the few people, if not the only one without an alibi.
"A true gambler never lets emotion cloud her grasp of probability. Given everything we know right now, I still reckon five-to-three odds that I’m the murderer."
There is always the possibility she did accidentally murder Taurenil or at least contribute to the murder. Just because one potential motive was ruled out means nothing. The biggest thing that can disprove Maula’s guilt right now is a shakeup in the timeline, which has been hinted at already here https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3514-the-smoking-gun/. We know Taurenil was drugged with prattroot, had a harpsichord dropped on her, and stabbed through the canthus with a 2" pin. The mystery is the order and people involved. Maula needs some sort of evidence that gives her an alibi or shows she couldn’t have done it https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3516-lunch-counter/
Maula’s reaction is a reflection of real world justice, where the focus is on what the best lawyer can convince you of, not what is scientifically undeniable.
Well, I mean, it’s not scientifically undeniable that Maula didn’t commit the murder. Captain Carruthers’ theory has been disproven, but Maula’s complete innocence in this crime hasn’t been proven.
I just find it odd in the real world that a person who has no intent or knowledge of a crime can be considered guilty even if in hindsight there was no realistic way for them to avoid it (without a crystal ball).
Well, lack of knowledge can be faked… and it probably does get taken into consideration?..
Also, real world is just corrupt, yeah 🙁
Tell me about it – I’m emigrating to Africa. 😀
Sounds like you’ve got a specific example in mind, so I can’t answer without knowing what it is. But in general, you can be guilty of a crime even if you didn’t specifically intend it to happen.
A drunk driver who kills someone can be and ought to be convicted of murder, even though the only crime he specifically intended to commit (or could have reliably and specifically forseen was gonna happen) was getting behind the wheel while impaired.
Actually, that would at most be manslaughter, unless it could be proved through some means that the intoxication in fact occured immediately post hit-and-run (I believe this came up on Matlock or some other similar programme).
It depends on the jurisdiction, but in most places I’ve lived, a DUI-related death can be prosecuted as second-degree murder. (Though prosecutors will often settle for a manslaughter charge instead unless there are aggravating factors like a history of drunk driving and/or if the crash was a hit-and-run.)
For a case that just recently ended near where i live, google "Grace Coleman murder", but be prepared for a very sad story. Ms. Coleman tried to flee the scene of the crash and had two prior drunk driving incidents despite her young age. She was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 21 years.
I’m not sure if this is at all the sort of issue of intent that Aaron was referring to, though.
Under California law if you kill someone while DUI after your first DUI, you can get life for murder. Usually it’s not that much, but can get pretty steep, like 25 to life. Many times it depends on what people feel about the victim, I have seen people who kill cyclists or skateboarders get nothing. Conversely, I have also seen the exact opposite, life without parole. It really depends on the biases of the jury and judge.
Reasonable suspicion, which applies to basically everyone on the group. While probable cause could be invalidated (though objectively, without knowing Maula, there’s no reason to just trust her word) there’s still a good
Motive: Winning the tournament. Weak argument, but it’s there.
Means: Maula had the prattroot. (This one kind of points at her above other players)
Opportunity: is what’s missing, no proof that she had the way to get to do everything, or even part of the things. No way to show that she actually had the opportunity any, if not all, of the many murders.
So it’s not of a good lawyer or not, there is a valid justification, and objectively, following reason alone, she’s still one of the suspects highest on the list.
I think the phrase you are looking for is "criminal negligence". Often an accidental death will be prosecuted because precautions were not taken, or other actions led to the impairment that caused the death. Drunk driving was mentioned, but another case would be holding the owners of a building responsible for deaths caused by not following safety regulations: locking the fire escapes because too many people were sneaking out through them is a classic.
A grey area is with buying stolen goods, because the purchaser is truly limited in how much inspection they can do to ensure the goods were not stolen.
Here, I think what we are getting at is that although Maula may eventually be found lacking a motive, if she did bring about the death of her friend she may still have been negligent.
I love Lucas’ expression in Panel 4.
t!
I love all expressions on this page.
More captain Lilianne.
She started to regret suspect Maula
Lucas mentioning the hole: https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3505-whats-the-catch/
The hole he was talking about: https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3503-the-unlit-era-legacy/
I couldn’t find a link to Carruther’s theory so quickly.
What to say?
The sins of the father go to his sons is a big and stinky pile of shit
I like to see Maula and Taurenil friendship in the old days.
Maula has been playing Cluedo (Clue in the USA), I see. The game where you, as the investigator, are unaware that you yourself could be the killer!
No, she just knows that her word or lack of motive isn’t enough to prove to the others she didn’t kill Taurenil.
Okay, so I’ve got a lot to say. I dropped all webcomics I read a few years back for personal reasons, but I never forgot this one. Just ‘binged’ (well it took me like a month) the whole archive to catch up, since figuring out where I’d last been seemed near impossible.
First off, gotta discuss the Ranna arc. I was keeping an eye on the comments and descriptions as I went, and I’d like to say that as a single, cohesive story it was fantastic. Every single prior storyline was built on for it, and almost every character in the story managed to get development for it. It was an incredible undertaking, and it felt like a strong payoff to years and years of development. Having a massive timeskip afterwards felt like the right move as well. Also, I really appreciated the way the conclusion of the arc cut right through the inherent good / evil issues with D&D. Ranna and Ch’Thier paralleled several other critical stories throughout YAFGC’s history, such as Glon and Lucas, Maula and the Baron, and of course Gren and Bob. Up til then, the story had *usually* focused on the breaking of societal and
But the gods turning out to be less powerful than mere mortal. Tribalism, reductionalist arguments, and uneducated worship are problems that are hard hitting, and this story was and still is incredibly timely in calling those things out. (especially in the US)
The discussion surrounding Ranna’s fall back in 2019 I also wanted to offer my own opinion on. While I can’t speak about race in this comic, I’ve been reading this since well before I’d admit I was queer. (…Honestly, I’ve been reading this for about half my life now, what a scary thought. 15 freaking long years). It’s incredibly refreshing to be able to consume media and not have to theorize endlessly on if characters are meant to be queer. If they are, it’ll come up sooner or later. Heck, even when I was prepared to be disappointed (I was polyshipping the halfling trio hard), it wasn’t bait. And polyamorous relationships in media in general are super rare, so it’s wonderful to see not just multiple in a single comic. In general, there’s been tons of queer characters in the comic, which also helps avoid other issues. I know bury your gays gets called out a lot as problematic, but characters like Charlotte and Arachne never feel like that because they aren’t the sole representation… and also because they had literally decades of development. No crazy baiting going on. Though, I will say I’m still thoroughly convinced Brandor and Kob will get together someday, whenever the story gets back to them.
On the current story arc, I’ll just say I’m shocked that it looks like the Abbott might not have done it, and I’m really enjoying all the new cast members (as usual).
As for the story in general? It’s just really refreshing to read something where characters are free to be themselves, rather than something built around plot points and attempting to get from point A to point B. Somehow, I feel your sketchy style lends itself really well to the character driven nature of this narrative, possibly because it’s just so expressive?
Anyways, hope things get under control for you between crazy COVID stuff still popping and juggling jobs, and can’t wait to see this story continue!
wait… WAIT… NO! I’m Caught Up!? There’s no more forward?!
God, reading this comic start to finish was absolutely spoiling me…
It’s common knowledge that if a webcomic goes for 4 weeks without an update, 90% of the time, it’s dead. Even if the author says they will be coming back, they usually don’t. Gone the way of Catalonia Manor, Hellbound, B-Picture Theater, Lackadaisy, and many others. I don’t blame the creator; if they got to busy or just burned out, it’s their prerogative. But it’s three weeks now and counting. I’m holding my breath to see if week 4 comes and if this strip ever continues. Cross fingers.
I’m sorry to keep flaking out like that. I honestly do come back. I love this world and I sometimes get busy or distracted and I have to take little breaks. In fact, I have another strip done and at some point today I’m going to try to scan at and upload it.
But yeah, I know it’s been unreliable for a while now and for that I’m sorry. Especially considering that for the first 6 years of YAFGC I posted every single day. EVERY SINGLE DAY without missing, even during blackouts, holidays away, and the birth of my children. (I had a buffer that would update itself, I didn’t miss the birth of my kids.)
Like Perry White tells to Lois Lane.
His work almost make his wife divorce. 364 days of the year his job was more important than her.
364? What about the remaining day? My wedding anniversary, happiest day of my life.
Greatest men meet spectations. No silly men knows what really matters
Given the slow pace of updates, I decided to go back and read the Blood Hand story from the beginning, ten strips a day, as a refresher. I’m now caught up, and the comic hasn’t been updated recently, but that’s OK. I’m patient.
Still better than PVP, which hasn’t updated since February. If Kurtz is working on something else I haven’t heard of it.
He’s working on a series of books called table Titans.
I’ll be damned, Kurtz had a new PVP strip in August and has redesigned his website. Which has all the old Table Titans stuff and says a Table Titans book is coming out in 2024.
Well, in my experience when an author comment he had troubles but he will continue updating his comic he did it.
And this author did that a lot of times.
I know comics like you said but How many of them said they return when can? I think i have the many adds Rich put when he needs.
It’s possible that no news updates until christhmas. Well, this only said that in new years eve we will have from two to ten new strips.
This happen before, this will hapen some time a long in a future (a far and dark future)
Not this comic. YAFGC has already been going quiet for weeks throughout this arc, including two month-long hiatuses, and it keeps coming back just fine. And Rich did warn us he’d be busy until September…
I can only assume you are new to yafgc. Rich has been doing this for decades, and pauses for real life are nothing new. In recent years, Rich updates when he can, which sometimes means "not at all for a month or two and then a whole bunch all at once."
When Rich says he’ll be back, it’s because he’ll be back, and he’s got the track record to prove it. The only alarming thing about this delay is that we hope Rich is still finding time to sleep and eat and hang out with his family a bit.
I also know comics like that (seriously though, who doesn’t?) but its just like the the others said.
At this point, there are only 2 scenarios at which I would think the days of yafgc are over:
1) Rich personally posts that for whatever reasons he will not continue it.
2) Dungeon Master posts that something happened to Rich that makes him unable to continue it.
Just be patient, and check back every now and then. One point he will be back, either with new strips or with an update. Maybe both.
To be fair on Lackadaisy, Ms Butler is presently very busy with the animated film of it.
Rich —
One thought on what might be causing the Dreamhost troubles. You know how trying to visit the forums these days triggers a cascade of error messages? Actual humans just learn not to go there, but maybe webcrawler bots are trying to follow links to the forum and triggering relentless failure storms.
Maybe if the forums and links to them were disconnected altogether (until the glorious day, foretold in song and prophecy, when they might be fixed) the load on Dreamhost would fall back to normal?
Oooh!! I hadn’t thought of that! Thank you I’ll try it.
-R
Given the forums haven’t had upkeep and maintenance since grad school decided to eat all of Hilary’s time, I’m not sure they can be fixed by this point. Most of the patches needed likely aren’t available any more, and as you said humans just don’t go there.
Rich has always been one of the best out of many web creators in trying to keep his fans in the loop. Always appreciated that.
I’m even finding this tech-side plot twist interesting! I know nothing about how all this stuff works, but GO MUCAT! 😀
Fingers crossed!
And in the real world, another Queen was lost.
Condolences to the family, and regardless of how one may have felt about her or the institution she represented, like the indominitable Lady Bloodhand, she cast a long shadow through history (it certainly predates my lifetime! ).
Thanks for the update, Rich. I figured as much. Websites are a technical nightmare at times. About one of the most unintuitive things that exist.
I love how *all* of them say "not exactly" together.