2.2.25
on July 29, 2024
at 3:00 am
takes real skill to catch fire on the ocean in a rainstorm. we should all be very impressed
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
takes real skill to catch fire on the ocean in a rainstorm. we should all be very impressed
I’m road tripping so finally I’m up when this is posted(3am for me)
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: oh no! where will we find water?
Image source: problem
Twitter Text: the future’s so bright I gotta wear shades
Tumblr Text: that poor boat is gradually accumulating status effects
Not the status effects!
Tess watches the sky from the top of the mast, when a big flaming rock hurtles out of the sky towards them. Tess shoots a bolt of lightning at it, breaking the rock into smaller pieces, then flinches back as the little pieces shoot past her into the mast. She looks at it in horror before shouting, “ERIN!”
“I have it in hand!” he calls back. “Just–”
“NEW PROBLEM!”
Erin whirls around to see the mast burning, holes from the stones already getting bigger.
Surprised as she might be, Tess breaks a melted rock
Informs Erin “NEW PROBLEM!”, he sees the flaming sail in shock
Now is the new problem the flaming perforated sail or that the rocks are getting BIGGER, too big for Tess to safely stop?
My initial guess was the sail, but I suppose there would be more rocks incoming.
The new problem is that when Tess punched one of the bigger volcanic bombs, it shattered instead of deflecting, and the shards hit the sail and set it on fire. And Tess has to keep fending off the bombs.
Only having one fire based threat is no fun, let’s throw in another!
Flaming sails in a storm sounds like an eminently solvable problem
they need to patch those holes 😬
This might actually be the first time we see Tess make a mistake since she got shackled by Shrike, and definitely the first time we see her in actual fear. That’s a whole 3rd thing Erin must now worry about! 4th if he’s controling the winds as well
I wouldn’t really call this a mistake, things would have been way worse if she hadn’t blown up the rock.
Yeah, I was trying to think of when we’ve seen her have that facial expression. I’m not sure she looked scared during the Tynan fight, just serious or like she was having fun.
I think that either A) Tess focuses on fixing the problem/helping like usual or B) We might get to see some actual weakness/other facet of her character. Maybe she has some childhood trauma related to things going wrong in a ship, or some other more specific reason she is genuinely worried over the state of the ship besides “Oof we’ll be in the sea for a while”. Maybe she knows/senses something approaching, like how she sensed Tynan before everyone else, and knows how lethal that encounter could be if the ship can’t outrun the threat with the damaged sail. After all, chekhov’s gun from 2-1-8 has yet to be fired! Either way, I’m excited for what we’ll get
Erin’s starting to look real stressed with those 4 problems, I wonder if he’ll become a 5th
Only four right now? Because Kendal still hasn’t told the rest of the floof squad about Vash warning him about the collector coming for him (Kendal). That is also a problem, but not quite such an immediate issue, but at the same time, I feel like if Kendal doesn’t tell the others about it now, then he won’t until it IS actually an immediate concern, and this is giving me anxiety just thinking about it.
Anyway, that’s already a fifth issue.
I’d argue Tess’s biggest mistake in Zuurith was how she kept going on the roofs despite many guards telling her not to. Sure she’s pretty anti-rules and was doing it to track Tynan with the intent to help the populace, but surely she knew of Zuurith’s reputation and heard what the guards were saying.
If she had gotten down when the guards told her and explained why she was doing it, or heck just stopped doing it on the second day, Tynan’s shenanigans could have been found out sooner and a large Shrike-shaped headache could have been avoided. But alas, that’s not how Tess rolls.
I know! Capsize the boat to dip the mast in the water to extinguish it, then turn it back around right side up. Problem solved.
The true way of extinguishing fire
sure if you want to give Dainix a heart attack
I’m sure he’ll find it refreshing.
Tess blasts apart a rock her size
As it flies towards them, blazing.
“ERIN! NEW PROBLEM!” she yells: the sail,
Struck by fragments, is burning.
The way it lights her up is magnificent.
Well, the fire should be easy to put out, since they have a water mage on board. What might be a bigger problem is that the sail will now have holes in it, making it useless. I wonder if they stocked a back-up sail, because if not, the ship will be a lot slower (only moving thanks to the water lacrimas.)
holes hinder a sale but it wouldn’t be “useless” just less efficient and more vulnerable. the thing to do would be to take it down as soon as possible to prevent more damage.
Tarren: (reading Erin’s notes) Why have you recommended “make the sails fireproof”?
Erin: Oh, y’know … reasons.
I like the subtle difference in tones between the first three panels; the contrast between viewing Tess and the sky with and without the blue glass-like water shield is a nice touch. That light coming through the clouds in the second panel is both lovely and momentarily gave me the hope that was the sun and they were nearing the end of the storm. Silly me.
Bad news, the sails are on fire; good news, Erin is literally manipulating water right now. I’m sure he can douse those flames with the rainwater he’s collecting and contain the fire risk, with just a few holes in the sails damage. However, I doubt that’s the last lava rock to come their way; Rakhn may or may not be deliberately targeting them.
I’m loving how this just keeps getting worse. I get the feeling that the next problem will be actively crashing into the volcano.
BRACE FOR A STOOOoOoooOOOORM
STOOOoOooooOOOORM
STOOOooooooOOOooooooOOOOOORM!!!!! The likes of which we’ve never seen before!!!!
We’re taking too much damage to survive!
well hey on the bright side, at least it’s not dainix’s fault
Fire? At a Sea Park?
Oh yeah, Rakhn definitely has it our for Vash
At least that’s one less thing for dainix to set on fire
I agree that this is definitely a problem, but consider this: Alinua can make the materials they’d need to patch the sail up until they get to a port. Now, granted, we can’t assume any of them know how to stitch up a patch, but still.
Alinua can fix the sail, but what about the rocks?
I feel like they’d punch right through an ice shield. An air shield could take the heat but what about blunt force? Maybe have Dainix Flame On and deal with them?
boy howdy, I’ll bet Falst is really enjoying being right a few pages back. Y’know, aside from the whole being-right part.
Fixable, as long as no one panics and nothing interferes. Erin should be able to either draw the fire away or smother it with water.
Now, how much do you want to bet that while trying to deal with this something else happens? 😀
It seems like this arc is to push Erin to ask for help for something he could do.
Because while Falst was being an ass about Erin just presuming he’ll be able to do everything, the point that went unstated, “what if you’re busy, and this needs to be done anyway?” was still a valid point. Erin can only maintain so many spells himself, and if the situation gets bad enough that they need Erin doing two, three, or even four or more things at the same time, having something that Falst can just spellcarve into his station and fix himself is one less thing competing for Erin’s attention.
Interestingly, if Erin weren’t keeping the rain away from the sails, they would’ve been soaking wet by now – and a lot harder to set on fire.
Why is Erin keeping the rain away anyway? This is a ship. It’s supposed to be able to survive at least a regular water-and-wind storm. Will it melt if too much water hits the deck? Did Tarren not include holes in the hull at deck level to let water flow out? Or is the floof squad just too good to stand in the rain anymore? As I see it, the only things they should need to worry about is the lightning and the flaming rocks.
I think it’s supposed to block lightin. a few pages ago when Tess stopped the lightning from hitting the boat, Erin remarked that a shield would be better suited. It might also be defending from wind but I’m not sure
Tess made the shield that block lightning. Erin is shielding them from wind and rain. And I think rain and wind would threaten to capcise them, and to sink them if the deck isn’t completely waterproof, and make it harder for the person steering. All valid reasons to be defending from them.
One muat remember that Erin is not a sailor, he’s an aristocrat. If he doesn’t know any better, he’ll prioritize comfort, and he doesn’t have the experience to know any better
Aaaand now we are seeing why you need to stop and assign everyone on a ship specific emergency positions and roles, preferably with overlap and backup. “All hands on deck” isn’t just a fun dramatic saying. It takes every possible person working in concert with good instruction to survive a trip overseas. The ocean is made out of a heavy, inertia-in-motion charged substance you can’t breathe, populated by things willing and happy to eat you, and the decision to put yourself on a tiny survivable patch in the middle of it requires cooperation, planning, and commitment to established emergency plans.
THERE SHOULD BE EMERGENCY CODES FOR EVERYTHING HAPPENING, TO ENABLE SPEED OF COMMUNICATION AND RESPONSE.
“New problem???”
What, was it too tough to assign a color to “something is on fire”?
“Someone needs medical attention”?
“Storm’s approaching, get shields up?”
These aren’t niche, nuanced problems, nor are they difficult to anticipate on a ship!
This ship NEEDS a full, experienced crew, and HAVE a bunch of newbies.
Erin handwaved ALL of this, and now he gets to learn the hard way what any experienced sailor could have told him from the start: If you rush a trip into a hostile biome, and YOU don’t test and find the gaps and problems with your safety systems before you set out, Mother Nature WILL DO IT FOR YOU and she is VERY UNFORGIVING OF MISTAKES.
(None of this is a criticism of the writing, by the way, all of this is character directed, and this page is a blast for how much it unveils exactly how much Erin specifically is letting his personal priorities endanger everyone on the boat.)
Our little Hubris boy in-too-deep once again 😀
Panel 5 looks so dynamic, Tess is just always cool
fools forgot to bring extra sails
Alexa, play “More Bad Weather on the Way” by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers.
Aaaand now we are seeing why you need to stop and assign everyone on a ship specific emergency positions and roles, preferably with overlap and backup. “All hands on deck” isn’t just a fun dramatic saying. It takes every possible person working in concert with good instruction to survive a trip overseas.
The ocean is made out of a heavy, inertia-in-motion charged substance you can’t breathe, populated by things willing and happy to eat you, and the decision to put yourself on a tiny survivable patch in the middle of it requires cooperation, planning, and commitment to established emergency plans.
THERE SHOULD BE EMERGENCY CODES FOR EVERYTHING HAPPENING, TO ENABLE SPEED OF COMMUNICATION AND RESPONSE.
“New problem”???
What, was it too tough to assign a color to “something is on fire”?
“Someone needs medical attention”?
“Storm’s approaching, get shields up?”
These aren’t niche, nuanced problems, nor are they difficult to anticipate on a ship!
This ship NEEDS a full, experienced crew, but has a bunch of newbies.
Erin handwaved ALL of this, and now he gets to learn the hard way what any experienced sailor could have told him from the start: If you rush a trip into a hostile biome, and YOU don’t test and find the gaps and problems with your safety systems before you set out, Mother Nature WILL DO IT FOR YOU and she is VERY UNFORGIVING OF MISTAKES.
(None of this is a criticism of the writing, by the way, all of this is character directed, and this page is a blast for how much it unveils exactly how much Erin specifically is letting his personal priorities endanger everyone on the boat.)
(Sorry if this comment double posts, the page did something weird the first time I tried to post it and after waiting a couple hours I still don’t see it showing up on the page, so I am trying again)
Oh, look! Fireworks for “Everybody Yells At The Elemental Magus” Day!
Been wondering this since last page, is Erin casting without circles right now?
I think the entire water dome has a magic circle
How many troubles can you juggle Erin?
Flipping back to the start of the storm and reading to the present, you can really feel how *fast* things are spiralling out of his control. My question is, will he overreach? Or freeze when he no longer knows which problem to focus on? (We saw him freeze up briefly in Zuurith when he wasn’t sure how to protect the city).
I would call thinking about how to deal with the storm hesitation not frozen. he said he was freezing, but he was still thinking about the problem and found a course of action.
No, his internal monologue literally used the words: “I’m helpless! Frozen!” before he had a EUREKA moment
Welp, time to grab some Grog and play yourselves off with the Hurdy Gurdy.
Hey, remember that thing that was said to Erin a few pages ago?
“You know the one thing you can’t do? Everything at once. At least this way, you won’t have to make me an air bubble.”
Yeah, we’re starting to get to that point where we need to do everything at once.
Common superman paradox. I think red had a trope video on this very topic lol
Oh dear. I wonder what’s next. A sea monster? Dainix losing the reins on his soulfire? Somebody falling overboard?
…losing the reins on his soulfire more than he already has, I mean, and going full Crucible
i think it will be fine erin wont die
what if the boms he maid expoad now that whold be content
Just FYI, folks, they had fire hoses on board ships *in the 19th century.* They were hand-pumped, not great, but much better than nothing. And they could spray the sails with them, to some degree. I expect Falst is going to handle the burning sail with one of Erin’s lacrimas, but just so you know, this wouldn’t have been game over IRL, just because they didn’t have a 50psi fire hose hooked a 220v fire pump, plugged into a 20kw Diesel generator.
In reality they would’ve just reefed the sails, or given how the characters are meant to be smart, lowered them completely until the storm passes.
Hopefully next week this wont become a huge problem where they have no sail or something stupid like that, this manufactured conflict due to moronic character decisions is really grinding by gears. Hopefully its just a one-off plot hole though.
Dang, it’s too bad we don’t have anyone who’s good with fire.
Plot hole alert! Why would they keep the sails up when entering a storm?
Basic protocol in this situation is to reef the sails, if not completely lower them. This prevents capsizing and protects the sails (big storms would do a number on this sail even without volcanic meteors)
Funny, this is the first actual plot hole I’ve come across in this comic. The Lighting Lady and Elemental Magus have clearly sailed before and should know the basic protocol in a storm.
Not a big plot hole, the scene doesn’t probably even need to change, but I am sure this will cascade into bigger issues next week.
well that ain’t good
TL;DR: Genius idea, Tess, now you’ve set the boat on fire!
Just liked to say everything they’re currently going through would have happened even if they had listened to Alinua and Dainix and if fact would only be worse if they had went with their plan instead of Erin’s, but in the end they all agreed to go along with his plan because it was clearly the best plan/course of action available
Just liked to say everything they’re currently going through would have happened even if they had listened to Alinua and Dainix and if fact would only be worse if they had went with their plan instead of Erin’s but in the end they all agreed to go along with his plan because it was clearly the best plan/course of action available
Sorry for the double comment for som reason it didn’t show up even after I refreshed so I thought it didn’t go through
Xali 512 pointed out on Page 19 that typing ?replytocom= at the end of the URL lets you see comments right after they’re posted. I’ve been doing it since Page 20.
I don’t get the URL thing on this site.
Anyway, Lightning Lady and Elemental Magus both apparently know about sailing, so they should’ve reefed the sail or completely lowered it. You should always do that when you go to a storm, because the winds and lightning can really do a number to the sail.
So yeah, this is a plot hole. First I’ve spotted on this comic. I can understand not having another sail or even a way of fixing the sail onboard, they left in a hurry.
Hopefully the sail being destroyed won’t be a big plot point just so they can go meet the merfolk.
Problems arising everywhere
Rain removed lets fires flare
On the mast, Tess guards and throws
Bright bolts to ward off burning stones.
Little wizard, have you found
Enchantment’s limits? A
Man alone will surely drown.