2.8.25
on September 14, 2026
at 3:00 am
to be honest if I could fire off beam attacks they would probably also become my default response to everything
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
to be honest if I could fire off beam attacks they would probably also become my default response to everything
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: okay I lied. THIS is the final BWEEM in this chapter
Image source: flying
Tumblr text: don’t ask me how long that panel took
Bluesky text: ahh, mondays
I don’t think this chapter will have a final BWEEM. The last panel will be a BWEEM and next chapter will start with a BWEEM.
new lore revealed: BWEEM beats tree
š
Usually Light is helpful for plants, but I guess it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.
Well, apparently thereās a limit. Somewhere between a nice summerās day and THE FULL CONCENTRATED POWER OF THE SUN!
A BG3 refrence? In **this** economy?
Some third parties may concider that to be a direct attack on the vulcano
Damn Stefan got hands
Yup. There it is. It was a good showing, but Stefan wouldn’t have entertained it. The question now is what he’s gonna take away from this excursion and how it will factor into Kendal’s inevitable interrogation.
Description text reminds me of Noah “The Spoony One” Antwiler’s rant about playing a superhero tabletop game. It might be amusing to read about Cyclops as the hero, but playing as one is deadly boring.
Spoony: It is not much fun playing Cyclops. Whenever your turn comes up, the DM asks you: “What are you going to do?” And your answer is always going to be “I’m going to shoot the bad guy with my eye beam.” Okay, roll to hit. And next time your turn comes up, the DM asks you: “What are you going to do?” And your answer is still going to be “I’m going to shoot the bad guy with my eye beam”. Or maybe “Is the bad guy in range for my eye beam? No? Okay, I move in range and shoot the bad guy with my eye beam!”. Boooooring!
To be blunt, it sounds like Spoony has never played any good superhero RPGs. Many of them are aware of that issue, and some of them successfully solve it. Not all tabletop RPGs are D&D in a funny costume!
I’m gonna mention Underside specifically, both because it solves that “problem” in several ways and because I’m waiting for a good opportunity to pitch it to my D&D group.
Placeholder for when Iām awake enough to form real thoughts
Damn… Stefan’s not even impressed. What kind of life mages has this guy met?
He doesn’t strike me as being able to “look” impressed unless it’s an act. (He might have been surprised at first, but this definitely took a few seconds to form, so the surprised passed.)
But he definitely took note, neutrally, of Alinua’s capabilities as a reference for the next fight.
I find it unlikely he doesnāt attribute the big magic to the Magnus anyways. āYou see how with power like that, that Magnus is a threat in the hands of the void dragon?ā āYou think that was Erin?ā
Not only was that not the ābig threat,ā the ābig threatā is TERRIFIED of the power that made that tree
i hope he continues poking increasingly powerful bears until i can eventually see him eaten by one.
Well that’s not good
Bweeem š
Anyway, I’m exited to see Falst and Kendal have an educational time in paladin land until it’s prison break time.
Kendal was so well behaved in Zurith that he deserves a good prison break.
That’s gorgeous, but OH NO COME ON!!!!! (thank you very much for this, it is incredible)
^
And I hate Stefan so much now. Before I was mostly neutral, now I hate him >.<
Agreed. That second panel is be-a-utiful, but give our girl a break Puh-lease!
NOOOOOOOOO DANG IT
I KNEW IT. I KNEW he’d white-bween and ruin everything!!!
No amount of fancy cape action and light-spike crown and light-spike shoulderpads can save him now!
Rakhn: Stop blowing holes in my island!
Sometimes the best BWEEM is the one that doesn’t announce itself. A deliberate choice Red has mentioned before on tumblr that by not using SFX it makes the action seem slower and more drawn out. Erin’s skybeam had it to emphasis how quickly he had to act, the Paladin’s blasts had it to show it’s a fast attack, but this BWEEM-less Bweem has power, weight and consequence.
It’s also incredibly pretty going straight through the centre of Alinua’s tree, scattering and illuminating it all the way to the volcano.
Still, this move was not a total failure; it’s given Tess an avenue to survive the eruption, and now Kendal knows for sure that Alinua is alive. As far as he is aware, all his friends are accounted for and should possess the means to survive the eruption; Stefan thinks that no pursuit will follow, but I reckon Kendal knows otherwise.
Well, no *immediate* pursuit, given the erupting volcano problem
Whelp, time to break another prison.
Shiiiiiit. Wow. I guess it does make sense he can do that. He too has a direct link to a living primordial of his element, and hard Light is ideal to cut stuff. Magical powerhouse with extraordinary connection to a living primordial versus better suited magical powerhouse with many more years of experience and also a connection to a living primordialā¦
Iām glad it was at least very visually satisfying. I was worried it was just going to be a simple *cut-* and then the better part of the plant would fall to the ocean, but having Stephan counterattack with a massive display of his own feels like a recognition of Alinuaās effort and of her as a possible threat that, had he not completely obliterated the plant like that, he wouldāve had to contented with.
I also find the lack of shock in his eyes very telling. Does he *still* think this was the magus? I think even by Mr āEach of my soul channels is soooooo big and Iāve got sixā standards, what Alinua just did is off limits to anybody but her. He probably thinks Erin (or possibly the Void Dragon possessing Erin) just attempted an extraordinary feat that was sure to really take him out, just to save Kendal. Stephan knows Kendal is āformidableā but he thinks he is a creation of Erin. If Erin just made Kendal and could make another, then why go through so much trouble for him? Hm. Maybe he thinks that Erin was actually mainly trying to get at *him*. Trying to take out one of the leaders of the Paladins does seem like a much smarter goal for the void dragon. Saving Kendal would then have been a nice plus that explains why he used life magic, a magic capable of grabbing Kendal and taking him back, instead of some other massive elemental attack that allegedly couldāve been thrown his way. I donāt think Stephan would expect VD or Erin to spend so much effort to rescue a āconstructā, but I do think he would be able to explain it as a last ditch attempt on his life before the end of the conflict.
Lastly, I just wanted to say how much Iām dreading Alinuaās reaction. I know itāll be heart breaking š
Like, they kidnapped her house :((((. She got so extremely depressed when he harmed himself, how will she react when he is kidnapped? If I was Erin I would stay underwater because right now extremely emotional Alinua is going to be looking for someone to blame, and he is perfect for the role (due to him actually basically being at fault for everything since they left Argist). Fortunately, she has Tess there with her. Honestly, positioning the emotionally intelligent heart of the group with āabout to have a meltdown worse than Chernobylā feels really intentional. Poor Alinua.
Not to absolutely ruin your day, but she’s already crying in panel 2
This better have been the last bweem of the chapter because goddamnit Stefan why did u do that
Well
It looks like the paladins succeeded in abducting Kendal.
Let’s hope they’re equipped to deal with the Collector, who is still tracking him. Might put things in perspective for them
Too be fair… that was a little TOO obvious to work. I mean, you have an entire ocean under there. And a ocean goddess in your debt. You can probably be taken very close to their stronghold very quickly.
Still, Alinua’s tree could at LEAST serve to show everyone where abouts to meet up.
It’s not beam attack, it’s BWEEM attack
This joke will deserve a reprise when a pair of opposed mages have a BWEEM-clash to determine which one had the right morals all along.
Why does this remind me of that scene in Return of the Jedi where the Millennium Falcon is escaping the Death Star explosion?
except in this redition, the death star is a lot smaller and the rebels are a lot greener
Stefan, I beg your finest pardon.
I think he might have made Aliās sh!tlist
Damn. I was reaaaalllly hoping Evil Tree wasn’t right and Alinua would snatch Kendal right out of their hands.
We… all knew that would happen, just thought it would be less awesome-looking.
One sorta wonders why he didn’t *start* with that. Sure, narratively, we need to see him be semi-reasonable and tactically brilliant…. but looking at this scale of fight, one kinda thinks that simply “scorching the island” would have been a feasible opening move.
I suppose the reason is that magic is limited in this setting. You can’t simply fire off infinite Giant BWEEEMs without exhausting the local Aurora, so, if you start with that and your enemy can avoid it, you’re out of luck until it ‘refills’ and they presumably still have plenty in the tank. So, not a good opening, but a very good finisher.
However… that also kinda implies that his original plan might well have been “put a bunch of Paladin troops everywhere, find the spot where they go comms dark, then nuke it from orbit.” Like, if this is the scale he was assuming he’d be fighting at, bringing in a bunch of ground troops seems like a good way to get them all killed. Which makes him very worrying.
The trouble with nuking a site from orbit without doing prior recon is that it doesn’t tell you whether or not the target was there in the first place. You want the ground troops to locate and confirm the target and then you can engage in overkill.
But now you’re just assuming that it was his plan to orbital-strike the island all along, which it clearly wasn’t. I really don’t think it implies anything, except that he’s an incredibly powerful Light Mage.
The Revenge of the Bweem
His nonchalance as he BWEEMs deific levels of Life magic out of the sky impresses me. He doesnāt even seem fazed by the presence of Alinua.
He probably thinks Erin grew that tree.
You are on real thin ice, buddy.
I am so excited for Alinua to beat the shit out of them.
-Signed The Vessel Of a Glowing God
(aka The Princess)
Wow. Earlier I was thinking Tess should have stayed on the tree to jump at Kendal when the tree was inevitably blocked, but now I’m very glad she got off.
I suppose it was too much to ask for Alinua “in control of her magic for a month” Primordial Vessel to overpower Stefan “years of experience” One of Several Primordial Champions. Very soon though, very soon.
Brutal. Ripped apart without so much as a sound effect.
I eagerly anticipate Stefan’s Break the Haughty arc.
anyway that’s what a quasar looks like
Aha. You all didn’t think it would be THAT easy, now did you?
Ok so the volcano god is gonna be pissed about that. He’s gonna consider that a direct attack against him and his people by the Paladins. All the Paladins who are still within lava rock yeeting distance of the island are in danger now.
Okay, but how long must I wait before I see this interrogation? I am patient! I will wait a year, if that is what Red requires. But this.. is a moment where I am not in equilibrium. I Hunger.
Takes painstaking crafted power scaling analysis monologue (rips it up into shreds) (throws up hands) I have no idea what to expect anymore . I did not expect Stephen to be anywhere near that powerful. I thought for sure that Alinua was the most powerful character in this narrative besides the Collector and VD. Red has once again surprised me.
On a related note why didnt they have anybody powerful guarding their archives in Zurith? Erin said “they archive all their record in this city” 1.12.14 but they didn’t feel the need to station somebody who could be mildly scary there?
Flash of bright light from dragon fires
Lance rending through lifeās leafy spires.
Yonder cleaves treeās trunk from base
In shock Tess and Alinua brace.
No pursuit expected says the septās crown
Gash left in Rakhnās side as ashes rain down