. The group freezes as the ground falls away right in front of them, showing a perfect view onto the beach far below.
. Dragons perch on the dark sand, only a couple now but dozens more visible on the horizon, swiftly approaching, swooping low to land. Metal boats attached to harnesses dangle under them, more on the beach with dark shapes climbing out of them. Dozens and dozens of Paladins, nearly two hundred scattered across the beach, preparing to search the island.
. “…I suppose I can make time,” Erin says slowly, face pale but with determination that matches his sister’s. Kendal stands next to them, sword dangling by his side, looking resigned. Dainix’s eyes are wide, staring down at the army of Paladins, supporting Falst whose teeth are bared in anger as he watches as well.
…Huh. Mm. Okay. ALINUA WHERE ARE YOU!
Not my best lol, ✨Sickness✨is✨baddddd✨
Anyway, I’m back now 😀
I love when the bad (and good) guys are not idiots. No “I’ll send my minions in the increasing order of lethality at the protagonist so they can git gud” here. Huge threat equals equally huge and overwhelming force to stop it.
Okay, that’s an army. With lots of dragons. I guess that’s how people looking felt when Aegon the Conqueror has made his king’s landing. And that dude was a schmuck with only 3 dragons, these have at least 12!
Looking at the silhouettes in the sky there, better make that estimate *multiples* of 12. Honestly justified given the scale of the threat they’re dealing with, it’d be remiss not to assume this centuries-old order hasn’t prepared IMMENSELY for ol’ Voidy to make his move.
Yes!! I’m so glad you brought that up! I freaking love the framing of that first panel! It feels like we’re looking at an entire world (you know, bc we can see the curvature of the earth and all) but the “whole world” is just like, filled with and laser focused on this dragon/paladin army. Incredible framing. Incredible art. Incredibly beautiful!
Oh. Oh me. Oooh my. Is this what we call “an oh-shit of dragons”? An abundance? A TPK of dragons?
Three people looking worried, concerned, surprised.
One like “I’m probably going to have to punch my way through these, and I am ready for it; which should I start with?”, and another like he doesn’t want to hurt them and is thinking up a plan.
…I wonder what Rakhn will do. And, possibly, what winter/the north wind/not a friend of Rakhn’s will do…
Maybe some of the dragons have multiple instars where their wings change between molts. I say this because larval dragon has a better ring than baby dragon.
It’s pretty funny that metal boats are considered a groundbreaking innovation on Aurora, and guns are unheard of, yet the Paladins have the ability to put up forcefields and dragon-airlift a whole army to this island in the middle of the ocean. Truly, they are ahead of their time.
I wonder how the paladin’s boats are built different to accommodate and designed to withstand dragon carrying. How ergonomic are the handles for dragon claws? Is there a dragon carry limit ? Do they train?
One half of my brain is thinking of Frodo and Sam looking over Gorgoroth and the lights of Sauron’s forces. The other half is thinking of the Trade Federation landing their droid army on Naboo. Both sides agree that direct combat will not win the day.
(Sorry, it’s hard to think of a funny intro line this page)
Silly me from last page thinking Erin was looking at more Paladins; I should have said Erin was looking at ALL the Paladins. There’s about thirty dragons on this page and, if each white light equals a person, easily over 200 Paladins on the ground, and more on the way. Intelligent, organised, disciplined, armed, magic-wielding Paladins. Even if the gang was at 100%, fighting would NOT be an option.
This looks bleak, but the cave distraction tactic is still technically viable; if they think they know where he is, they won’t use the messenger birds to find him. However with so many eyes on the island, it would take just one Paladin spying them elsewhere for the ruse to come apart. Maybe mug some of them for disguises is on the agenda?
Plus, there are other factors that may complicate things for better or worse. What will Rakhn’s response be to such a force on his territory? Will the Volcanic Ignans, ignorant of the Erin situation, see this as an invasion army to be met? And just where, when, and how will Alinua re-enter the picture?
Prediction for next chapter: The only way they’re getting off this island is with the Northern Wyrm’s assistance. Escaping by themselves in what will likely be an improvised raft without being spotted by both Paladin and dragon will be highly unlikely, even with the cover of night. However, if they get far enough out so that they exit Rakhn’s domain and enter the Northern Wyrm’s, she and the merfolk can help them the rest of the way underwater.
However, such a plan will rely on Alinua getting to Rakhn, finding the others, and have time to talk about her new friends and allies. How such a thing will happen, I have no idea … and I find that very exciting.
Let’s list down the unresolved questions that are still lying around
1. Will they try to get off the island? (If yes then how?)
2. If they’re going to try to negotiate, how will they do that without escalation?
3. The first panel is made to make it clear that fighting, with the current status quo is impractical, to us and to the characters. So how can they make their stand?
To unravel this question we need to understand the powers at play here,
(a). The only adversarial force present in the region is the paladin armada, consisting of roughly 40 dragons , and if we assume that each dragon is accompanied
by a conterbernium of 12 paladins (on average) the there’d be around 500 paladins and potentially more incoming, ready to fight, and given their mentalities
have established as showing no mercy , this is a potent fighting force. They have the island essentially under siege and control the airspace.
(b). Potential allies:
The gang is seemingly screwed, but they might have allies ready to support them, the first and the most promising one is the forces of the northern wyrm,
especially bound by the favor alinua did to them.
The second potential ally is Rakhn and the native ignans, who presumably won’t like the paladins encroaching on their island in huge numbers, though it’s
uncertain whether Rakhn himself will be willing to intervene ( he did says he “owes” kendal though it’s unclear to what extent he meant that ) because the
Paladins technically are not acting on behalf of other gods to warrant an intervention. Though the ignans might act on their own.
4. Fight or flight?
Even with all the allies our guys can muster , fight seems to be an impractical option. Not just because of the strength of the paladins, but the moral conundrum
of having a full blown battle against these forces that at the end, have a justified motivation.
The major problem is that they can’t really negotiate effectively, atleast under the current situation. We have seen Aryss understanding that erin isn’t under the
direct control of the VD. But they will still resort to murder.
How Alinua affects the situation is still a big question, but it can be said that an intervention will happen from under the sea.
Currently, the blasting the cave option does seem to be kinda viable, though it is unclear on how they will exactly hide or potentially escape. Would love to hear
you guys’ thoughts on this!
1. Definitely agree that some kind of distraction or disguise is needed. Alinua can obviously help them escape into the sea if she can locate where they are (which isn’t going to be hard, considering the GIANT ASS FLEET OF DRAGONS), it’s how they’re going to make contact with her without arousing any attention- then escaping fast enough that they can’t just attack with the magical equivalent of depth charges.
2. That’s the neat part, they won’t… unless. It’s true that they have a “kill on sight” mentality for anyone perceived to be helping Voidy. But… what if they order for Erin to be brought directly to the leader of the Sept so they can guarantee the kill, and he negotiates that he’ll do that as long as his friends are captured, not killed? It’s a long shot, but it could lead to a HELL of an escape sequence.
3. Guerilla warfare. Pick off each patrol quietly, and safely, over an extended period of time, without alerting any other patrols or overextending themselves, then retreat. Rinse and repeat until there’s an opening large enough for Alinua to exploit.
I hate to make your hypothetical even worse but isn’t the more usual assumption that each light is a campfire, that would have multiple people around/near it?
Well I estimated that due to the numbers we saw with aryss and also some dragons are bigger than that so I took an average of 12, about your question on what about those lights, I literally don’t have any idea how to factor those in so I took another path
Two of the dragons are standing on the surface of the water. At first I thought the water was shallow, but there is a dragon swimming closer to shore than the one on the right. Water walking dragons are bad news for boats.
I think that’s just a legless dragon slithering on its belly. Given that there is a true beach (the darker bit that isn’t reflecting sunlight) I think the water is that shallow
With the end of the chapter, the last OSP Trope Talk just gave me an idea.
Oh no! Red has run out of pages and the comic needs something to play while she draws the next section! What filler arc do you slot in to tide people over?
Flashback time! Day in the life in Vash, baby Dainix learning to fight, why Vash and Zuurith don’t get along, gods’ council/party, Tynan’s first ass-kicking…
Average DM: “The party’s gotten so powerful; how do I challenge them without resorting to throwing 40 dragons at them?”
Red: “The party’s gotten so strong, I can finally throw 40 dragons at them”.
Boat-carrier dragons. Huh. But yeah – why sail when flying is faster and the boat-shape is conveniently grippable by dragon-talons. I wonder how the dragons feel, being used as mules while being descendants of (? or at least created in the image of) the divine forces that willed the universe into being.
The appearance of these boat-looking things made me think way too much about the implications about how the order employs dragons. I suppose when these guys set out they wouldn’t necessarily have known whether their targets were still at sea or not. But those boats are much too small to be particularly seaworthy, they seem good for short-range coastal mobility only, in which case why bother with the weight? Best way to hunt a ship is with aircraft, so dragons with as little encumbrance as possible. On the other hand, if they knew the targets were on land, also why bother with boats unless it’s a way for the dragon to safely dump its cargo wherever (coastal waters being a good reliable “wherever”) and turn around to make another trip.
So I’m wondering whether the boats are primarily boats at all. If they’re lightweight enough, maybe the boats are actually aerodynamic fairings for the dragon to keep non-aerodynamic cargo in, and they actually increase the dragon’s flight speed at whatever level of exertion, relative to naked humanoids in harnesses. And they also double as OK rowboats. Maybe with some magic assistance so they perform somewhat better than real rowboats.
I guess the counter-intuitive bit for me is the idea that maybe the dragons would be making multiple trips as a matter of course. It seems like there are more lights on the beach, if there’s one light per person, than might fit in the boats carried by the 8 visible already-landed dragons, in which case maybe some of the dragons in the distance might be outbound, or maybe there’s been enough time for multiple trips already.
If true, I kinda like the idea of “Yeah, these dragons are pretty good at fighting, but we have not-dragons that are also good at fighting and a dragon can carry loads of them so at least some of the time our dragons are moving people and equipment around full time”
Erm, actually, that’s 28 dragons. In all actuality though, that’s still A LOT of dragons. Also, one of those looks like the one that Lucy possessed earlier. And look at all those morphological differences! Bird wings, bat wings, pterosaur wings, wings with individual struts. Such diversity! Are dragons all the same species?
Yes, dragons are actually all the same species. They absorb elements from their environment as they develop in the egg, and that leads to morphological differences once they hatch! (https://aurora.wiki.gg/wiki/Dragons)
Dingdingding, @silver won the bet from Wednesday’s page! You get… bragging rights. Sorry, I have no idea how to import anything physical through the web.
Said bet aside… holy [CENSORED], if the gang’s high up enough that each Paladin looks like a shiny little dot…that’s a fucking ARMY of them. If they’re encircling the island, they can’t get to the water, let alone have Alinua make contact unnoticed, I highly doubt Rakhn’s people, let alone Rakhn himself, want to risk getting in the way of the Paladins, and making a break for the Singing Caves is downright suicidal, so… anyone have any ideas on what they’re gonna pull to escape? And I’m going to shut down any “tactical surrender” ideas, they already tried to kill Falst + had that overzealous speech a few pages back.
I doubt that the paladins and their dragon allies are encircling the island, I think they’re just arriving at the island and about to encircle our friends directly (ya know, bc Erin told them his name so they can use those cute burbs and whatnot to track them down and such)
As for what’s going to happen, I mean the goddess of the water is an ally of Alinua now and I assume that Rakhn is an ally (albeit potentially less reliable) of Kendal’s… Between the two of those very powerful gods that literally control water and lava respectively, this paladin / dragon army is in for a Fight.
Unless, of course, something happens to break the flight before it starts, like for instance some extremely consequential knowledge of the Light dragon and the Dark dragon’s relationship / connection. I personally doubt that info will be spilled here though
In any other context, panel 1 would be the pure manifestation of fantastic whimsy. In this context, it’s still got the same energy as Samwise Gamgey seeing Oliphaunts (in the movies. In the books, he saw one when it was charging through a forest and nearly crushed him…and he was still happy about it.)
It’s D-Day (Dragon day), and although the airborne assult of Taskforce Aryss further inland has been severely battered, forces of the 3rd Dragon division and the 17th Paladin core have established a stable beachhead. With the 11th Dragon division and the 5th Paladin core soon to reinforce the forces already present, it is unlikely that the invasion will be pushed back into the sea.
Place your bets now (or in a few weeks lol), how will the next chapter open!
1. Continuation of Tess and the Boys stealth mission! (very possible but also ehhhhhhhh)
2. Cut to Alinua dealing with the situation and/or chilling with the Northern Wyrm (most likely to me, we haven’t seen her in a while)
3. Interlude section of Shrike and Theia scheming (would be fun, will probably happen at some point, but probably not right now)
4. Interlude section of Tam and the Septrenn (please please please the debate about them has gone on for literally two years)
5. Interlude section of Collector Roadtrip! (seems unlikely)
I’m betting on 4 (or a cut to the paladins in general). I don’t think we’re going to stick with Tess and the Boys because we’ve already seen how a fight with the paladins would go. Another run-in would get repetitive and unless the Collector pops up out of Chekhov’s cursed cave there aren’t any other conflicts for them to deal with rn. I don’t know that we’d get much out of an Alinua POV right now either, but it might be fun to hear about her going full protective floof from the POV of the paladins.
If I had a nickel for every time I started reading a fantasy comic with a 5-6 man-band in it who were running from the authorities due to Misunderstandings (TM), and it was written by an aroace woman heavily associated with the color red, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
There was actually a tumblr poll about what “ridiculously big weapon“ tess should get, and i had an idea.
I know the boat probably didn’t have an anchor, but I can imagine them salvaging supplies from the boat and tess just… decided to use an anchor as a weapon.
Listen all i am saying is 40 dragons counts as a rocks fall everyone dies level encounter for a level 20 party of 6.
And while i hate to say this.
Falst is not level 20 yet, i would say he is like level 11. Tess is only like level 16, erin is perhaps 19.
Which makes this 2 level 20’s verus 40 dragons.
Granted, both of those have wish as a prepared action.
But i dont know if Vash can get our intrepid hero’s out of this one. And dainx might be able to mulch a dragon or two… but that… that is a lot of dragons.
Oh holly me it’s dainix
Oh golly me it’s some dragons
oh golly me its kendal
oh golly me it’s Falst
Oh golly me its erin
Oh golly me it’s Tess
Oh golly me it’s NOT Alinua.
Oh golly me, it’s a crisis of dragons!
CHRISTMAS TYPO
Oh. Their cavalry has arrived as well.
Well, shit.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: ah, of course. forty dragons
Image source: time
Tumbr text: whenever I had a problem I introduced forty dragons and right away I had a different problem
Bluesky text: we’ll be back once I get chapter 8 looking all nice and pretty!
I meant chapter 7, I’m not gonna make you wait for two whole chapters
That’s as many as four tens!
And that’s terrible!
And that’s terrible!
And that’s terrible!
For the floof squad. I for one am excited for more paladin content.
And that’s terrible.
And that’s terrible.
. The group freezes as the ground falls away right in front of them, showing a perfect view onto the beach far below.
. Dragons perch on the dark sand, only a couple now but dozens more visible on the horizon, swiftly approaching, swooping low to land. Metal boats attached to harnesses dangle under them, more on the beach with dark shapes climbing out of them. Dozens and dozens of Paladins, nearly two hundred scattered across the beach, preparing to search the island.
. “…I suppose I can make time,” Erin says slowly, face pale but with determination that matches his sister’s. Kendal stands next to them, sword dangling by his side, looking resigned. Dainix’s eyes are wide, staring down at the army of Paladins, supporting Falst whose teeth are bared in anger as he watches as well.
…Huh. Mm. Okay. ALINUA WHERE ARE YOU!
Not my best lol, ✨Sickness✨is✨baddddd✨
Anyway, I’m back now 😀
this may be mildly inconvenient
Hey there are aquatic dragons too
my idea’s that they’re all aligned to an element cuz like Aryss is a fire dragon and wasn’t the one Tess punched in her intro a lightning dragon?
Oh deary me
Welcome to fantasy Normandy landings but with Dragons.
Yep, it was more Paladins. Many, many more paladins.
I love when the bad (and good) guys are not idiots. No “I’ll send my minions in the increasing order of lethality at the protagonist so they can git gud” here. Huge threat equals equally huge and overwhelming force to stop it.
It’s definitely refreshing, but now I have absolutely no idea how any of them are going to escape without SEVERE injury.
I also get the feeling that the Paladins might be continuously reinforcing the expeditionary force at Rakhn.
Okay, that’s an army. With lots of dragons. I guess that’s how people looking felt when Aegon the Conqueror has made his king’s landing. And that dude was a schmuck with only 3 dragons, these have at least 12!
Looking at the silhouettes in the sky there, better make that estimate *multiples* of 12. Honestly justified given the scale of the threat they’re dealing with, it’d be remiss not to assume this centuries-old order hasn’t prepared IMMENSELY for ol’ Voidy to make his move.
I counted 28 in that shot alone
Um actually, there’s only 28 dragons visible.
I think you missed one that’s just a little speck in the background
I counted 30
glad someone else had the same thought
If you REALLY zoom in and count the two TINY dots that I’m assuming are distant dragons, then the count is up to 30
Here be dragons indeed.
Tossing 40 dragons at your party will always stop your party. Ain’t fighting your way through that.
…They haven’t even all landed yet.
OH. YIKES.
Okay, but can we appreciate how pretty the sea is in the first panel?
Yes!! I’m so glad you brought that up! I freaking love the framing of that first panel! It feels like we’re looking at an entire world (you know, bc we can see the curvature of the earth and all) but the “whole world” is just like, filled with and laser focused on this dragon/paladin army. Incredible framing. Incredible art. Incredibly beautiful!
Ah damn, I was hoping it’d be Alinua
Speaking of, I think the collector should be showing up at some point too, right?
ermmmm acktchoolee there are “only” 29 dragons visible not 40
I assume they’re still on their way, but 40 dragons are going to arrive? Shrug hahah idk
Oh. Oh me. Oooh my. Is this what we call “an oh-shit of dragons”? An abundance? A TPK of dragons?
Three people looking worried, concerned, surprised.
One like “I’m probably going to have to punch my way through these, and I am ready for it; which should I start with?”, and another like he doesn’t want to hurt them and is thinking up a plan.
…I wonder what Rakhn will do. And, possibly, what winter/the north wind/not a friend of Rakhn’s will do…
So many majestic dragons, how lovely.
I am glad to see things are proceeding so well.
Interesting how even the bird/bat wing split is. Is it gender dimorphism?
Nope, dragons don’t even have separate genders.
It’s the different species. Storm drakes have feathers. Fire drakes have the bat wings. I can’t remember what the other ones have.
Dragons reproduce parthenogenetically. The type of wings is determined by the dragon’s elemental influence.
Maybe some of the dragons have multiple instars where their wings change between molts. I say this because larval dragon has a better ring than baby dragon.
Fffffuuuuuu…
You know when the last 2 chapters ended amicably and we didn’t need to fight any gods? The luck runs out, and I am so worried
It’s pretty funny that metal boats are considered a groundbreaking innovation on Aurora, and guns are unheard of, yet the Paladins have the ability to put up forcefields and dragon-airlift a whole army to this island in the middle of the ocean. Truly, they are ahead of their time.
Well this was pretty much what I feared would happen , they are farther away than I expected tho
Some of them are real big , i see a storm drake too
I wonder how the paladin’s boats are built different to accommodate and designed to withstand dragon carrying. How ergonomic are the handles for dragon claws? Is there a dragon carry limit ? Do they train?
uh oh
uh oh
One half of my brain is thinking of Frodo and Sam looking over Gorgoroth and the lights of Sauron’s forces. The other half is thinking of the Trade Federation landing their droid army on Naboo. Both sides agree that direct combat will not win the day.
(Sorry, it’s hard to think of a funny intro line this page)
Silly me from last page thinking Erin was looking at more Paladins; I should have said Erin was looking at ALL the Paladins. There’s about thirty dragons on this page and, if each white light equals a person, easily over 200 Paladins on the ground, and more on the way. Intelligent, organised, disciplined, armed, magic-wielding Paladins. Even if the gang was at 100%, fighting would NOT be an option.
This looks bleak, but the cave distraction tactic is still technically viable; if they think they know where he is, they won’t use the messenger birds to find him. However with so many eyes on the island, it would take just one Paladin spying them elsewhere for the ruse to come apart. Maybe mug some of them for disguises is on the agenda?
Plus, there are other factors that may complicate things for better or worse. What will Rakhn’s response be to such a force on his territory? Will the Volcanic Ignans, ignorant of the Erin situation, see this as an invasion army to be met? And just where, when, and how will Alinua re-enter the picture?
Prediction for next chapter: The only way they’re getting off this island is with the Northern Wyrm’s assistance. Escaping by themselves in what will likely be an improvised raft without being spotted by both Paladin and dragon will be highly unlikely, even with the cover of night. However, if they get far enough out so that they exit Rakhn’s domain and enter the Northern Wyrm’s, she and the merfolk can help them the rest of the way underwater.
However, such a plan will rely on Alinua getting to Rakhn, finding the others, and have time to talk about her new friends and allies. How such a thing will happen, I have no idea … and I find that very exciting.
Let’s list down the unresolved questions that are still lying around
1. Will they try to get off the island? (If yes then how?)
2. If they’re going to try to negotiate, how will they do that without escalation?
3. The first panel is made to make it clear that fighting, with the current status quo is impractical, to us and to the characters. So how can they make their stand?
To unravel this question we need to understand the powers at play here,
(a). The only adversarial force present in the region is the paladin armada, consisting of roughly 40 dragons , and if we assume that each dragon is accompanied
by a conterbernium of 12 paladins (on average) the there’d be around 500 paladins and potentially more incoming, ready to fight, and given their mentalities
have established as showing no mercy , this is a potent fighting force. They have the island essentially under siege and control the airspace.
(b). Potential allies:
The gang is seemingly screwed, but they might have allies ready to support them, the first and the most promising one is the forces of the northern wyrm,
especially bound by the favor alinua did to them.
The second potential ally is Rakhn and the native ignans, who presumably won’t like the paladins encroaching on their island in huge numbers, though it’s
uncertain whether Rakhn himself will be willing to intervene ( he did says he “owes” kendal though it’s unclear to what extent he meant that ) because the
Paladins technically are not acting on behalf of other gods to warrant an intervention. Though the ignans might act on their own.
4. Fight or flight?
Even with all the allies our guys can muster , fight seems to be an impractical option. Not just because of the strength of the paladins, but the moral conundrum
of having a full blown battle against these forces that at the end, have a justified motivation.
The major problem is that they can’t really negotiate effectively, atleast under the current situation. We have seen Aryss understanding that erin isn’t under the
direct control of the VD. But they will still resort to murder.
How Alinua affects the situation is still a big question, but it can be said that an intervention will happen from under the sea.
Currently, the blasting the cave option does seem to be kinda viable, though it is unclear on how they will exactly hide or potentially escape. Would love to hear
you guys’ thoughts on this!
1. Definitely agree that some kind of distraction or disguise is needed. Alinua can obviously help them escape into the sea if she can locate where they are (which isn’t going to be hard, considering the GIANT ASS FLEET OF DRAGONS), it’s how they’re going to make contact with her without arousing any attention- then escaping fast enough that they can’t just attack with the magical equivalent of depth charges.
2. That’s the neat part, they won’t… unless. It’s true that they have a “kill on sight” mentality for anyone perceived to be helping Voidy. But… what if they order for Erin to be brought directly to the leader of the Sept so they can guarantee the kill, and he negotiates that he’ll do that as long as his friends are captured, not killed? It’s a long shot, but it could lead to a HELL of an escape sequence.
3. Guerilla warfare. Pick off each patrol quietly, and safely, over an extended period of time, without alerting any other patrols or overextending themselves, then retreat. Rinse and repeat until there’s an opening large enough for Alinua to exploit.
I hate to make your hypothetical even worse but isn’t the more usual assumption that each light is a campfire, that would have multiple people around/near it?
Well I estimated that due to the numbers we saw with aryss and also some dragons are bigger than that so I took an average of 12, about your question on what about those lights, I literally don’t have any idea how to factor those in so I took another path
Two of the dragons are standing on the surface of the water. At first I thought the water was shallow, but there is a dragon swimming closer to shore than the one on the right. Water walking dragons are bad news for boats.
I think that’s just a legless dragon slithering on its belly. Given that there is a true beach (the darker bit that isn’t reflecting sunlight) I think the water is that shallow
They are really taking this existential threat to all of existence seriously, who would have thought
With the end of the chapter, the last OSP Trope Talk just gave me an idea.
Oh no! Red has run out of pages and the comic needs something to play while she draws the next section! What filler arc do you slot in to tide people over?
an aurora tournament arc would slap
Flashback time! Day in the life in Vash, baby Dainix learning to fight, why Vash and Zuurith don’t get along, gods’ council/party, Tynan’s first ass-kicking…
Beach episode, obviously. I’m sure the Army Of Light will be kind enough to let them relax a bit before attacking.
I would forge a soul link with the Void Dragon for a Q&A with the characters the way Cucumber Quest and Paranatural did during their hiatuses.
The paladins brought forty dragons. Forty dragons. That’s as many as four tens. And that’s terrible.
We need a like button 😆
ARE THEY FREEZING THE OCEAN????
that’s a lot of dragons
Back to the cave (that’s not a cave)? Oh man, when is Alinua resurfacing?????
They must be off the edge of the map, because hic DEFINITELY sunt dracones.
Take your pick for this scene: “Flight of the Valkyries” or “Jedi Temple March.” Personally, I’d say the latter soundtrack fits better.
Average DM: “The party’s gotten so powerful; how do I challenge them without resorting to throwing 40 dragons at them?”
Red: “The party’s gotten so strong, I can finally throw 40 dragons at them”.
Boat-carrier dragons. Huh. But yeah – why sail when flying is faster and the boat-shape is conveniently grippable by dragon-talons. I wonder how the dragons feel, being used as mules while being descendants of (? or at least created in the image of) the divine forces that willed the universe into being.
Well, at least Rakhn has a fun story to watch and/or participate in. Probably the most lively thing the island has seen in decades.
ah yes erin thinks he can make time…HOW…
“There’s no way this is written in the adventure”
*DM taps the paragraph that says ’40 Adult Silver Dragons’ in bold font*
Kendal is aura farming so much, I love it
Well, on the plus side, there are lots of new boats to choose from.
The appearance of these boat-looking things made me think way too much about the implications about how the order employs dragons. I suppose when these guys set out they wouldn’t necessarily have known whether their targets were still at sea or not. But those boats are much too small to be particularly seaworthy, they seem good for short-range coastal mobility only, in which case why bother with the weight? Best way to hunt a ship is with aircraft, so dragons with as little encumbrance as possible. On the other hand, if they knew the targets were on land, also why bother with boats unless it’s a way for the dragon to safely dump its cargo wherever (coastal waters being a good reliable “wherever”) and turn around to make another trip.
So I’m wondering whether the boats are primarily boats at all. If they’re lightweight enough, maybe the boats are actually aerodynamic fairings for the dragon to keep non-aerodynamic cargo in, and they actually increase the dragon’s flight speed at whatever level of exertion, relative to naked humanoids in harnesses. And they also double as OK rowboats. Maybe with some magic assistance so they perform somewhat better than real rowboats.
I guess the counter-intuitive bit for me is the idea that maybe the dragons would be making multiple trips as a matter of course. It seems like there are more lights on the beach, if there’s one light per person, than might fit in the boats carried by the 8 visible already-landed dragons, in which case maybe some of the dragons in the distance might be outbound, or maybe there’s been enough time for multiple trips already.
If true, I kinda like the idea of “Yeah, these dragons are pretty good at fighting, but we have not-dragons that are also good at fighting and a dragon can carry loads of them so at least some of the time our dragons are moving people and equipment around full time”
Erm, actually, that’s 28 dragons. In all actuality though, that’s still A LOT of dragons. Also, one of those looks like the one that Lucy possessed earlier. And look at all those morphological differences! Bird wings, bat wings, pterosaur wings, wings with individual struts. Such diversity! Are dragons all the same species?
Yes, dragons are actually all the same species. They absorb elements from their environment as they develop in the egg, and that leads to morphological differences once they hatch! (https://aurora.wiki.gg/wiki/Dragons)
oh damn that’s a lotta Big Guys ™
Well Tess has like a 3:0 win record against dragons so far so this’ll probably be fine I’m sure
This DEFINITELY isn’t inspiring my D&D game whatsoever… my players LOVE seeing boats full of foes carried by dragons
the “oh fuck” and the “ooohhh prettyyyyyyy” are at war in my brain
I count 28 dragons in panel 1. We’re gonna need a bigger Tess
A GianTess if you will
Alinua if there was ever a time we needed you to swoop in with an Alinua ex machina now is that time
Oh golly it’s time for a break
Dingdingding, @silver won the bet from Wednesday’s page! You get… bragging rights. Sorry, I have no idea how to import anything physical through the web.
Said bet aside… holy [CENSORED], if the gang’s high up enough that each Paladin looks like a shiny little dot…that’s a fucking ARMY of them. If they’re encircling the island, they can’t get to the water, let alone have Alinua make contact unnoticed, I highly doubt Rakhn’s people, let alone Rakhn himself, want to risk getting in the way of the Paladins, and making a break for the Singing Caves is downright suicidal, so… anyone have any ideas on what they’re gonna pull to escape? And I’m going to shut down any “tactical surrender” ideas, they already tried to kill Falst + had that overzealous speech a few pages back.
I doubt that the paladins and their dragon allies are encircling the island, I think they’re just arriving at the island and about to encircle our friends directly (ya know, bc Erin told them his name so they can use those cute burbs and whatnot to track them down and such)
As for what’s going to happen, I mean the goddess of the water is an ally of Alinua now and I assume that Rakhn is an ally (albeit potentially less reliable) of Kendal’s… Between the two of those very powerful gods that literally control water and lava respectively, this paladin / dragon army is in for a Fight.
Unless, of course, something happens to break the flight before it starts, like for instance some extremely consequential knowledge of the Light dragon and the Dark dragon’s relationship / connection. I personally doubt that info will be spilled here though
I’m coming back after a while – did tess get more muscle???
Time for Alinua to drop a seaweed kaiju on a bunch of dragons
Uh-oh.
….Alinua, where you at?
Anyways, this is page 1000.
So by my count, we’re on page 1001. How did this happen? I would understand if we were 10 pages off from each other. But one? That’s cofusing
The two-page spread in “Fire and Stone”.
So, yes, army. And dragons. But, volcano, the Sea, AND the party of protagonists. I suspect are going to be rather fewer dragons before this ends.
And now we wait. Sigh.
Or maybe we could try and talk to Aryss, who seems rather non-fanatical about this whole thing?
Ok, I know this is supposed to be a tense moment, but the dragons carrying the paladins around in little boats is just so cute.
In any other context, panel 1 would be the pure manifestation of fantastic whimsy. In this context, it’s still got the same energy as Samwise Gamgey seeing Oliphaunts (in the movies. In the books, he saw one when it was charging through a forest and nearly crushed him…and he was still happy about it.)
It’s D-Day (Dragon day), and although the airborne assult of Taskforce Aryss further inland has been severely battered, forces of the 3rd Dragon division and the 17th Paladin core have established a stable beachhead. With the 11th Dragon division and the 5th Paladin core soon to reinforce the forces already present, it is unlikely that the invasion will be pushed back into the sea.
Place your bets now (or in a few weeks lol), how will the next chapter open!
1. Continuation of Tess and the Boys stealth mission! (very possible but also ehhhhhhhh)
2. Cut to Alinua dealing with the situation and/or chilling with the Northern Wyrm (most likely to me, we haven’t seen her in a while)
3. Interlude section of Shrike and Theia scheming (would be fun, will probably happen at some point, but probably not right now)
4. Interlude section of Tam and the Septrenn (please please please the debate about them has gone on for literally two years)
5. Interlude section of Collector Roadtrip! (seems unlikely)
I’m betting on 4 (or a cut to the paladins in general). I don’t think we’re going to stick with Tess and the Boys because we’ve already seen how a fight with the paladins would go. Another run-in would get repetitive and unless the Collector pops up out of Chekhov’s cursed cave there aren’t any other conflicts for them to deal with rn. I don’t know that we’d get much out of an Alinua POV right now either, but it might be fun to hear about her going full protective floof from the POV of the paladins.
Full page spread! Otherwise… cliffhanger? That’s not what I expected. Oh boy. It’s going to take all of next chapter for them to get out of this mess.
It’s the whole damn reptilian army!
If I had a nickel for every time I started reading a fantasy comic with a 5-6 man-band in it who were running from the authorities due to Misunderstandings (TM), and it was written by an aroace woman heavily associated with the color red, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Airlifting a naval force? Impressive.
I guess they too realized the water solution?
Time of a Deus Ex Alinua.
COME ON ALINUA – DROWN THEM!!!
There was actually a tumblr poll about what “ridiculously big weapon“ tess should get, and i had an idea.
I know the boat probably didn’t have an anchor, but I can imagine them salvaging supplies from the boat and tess just… decided to use an anchor as a weapon.
She could electrify it too!
Its a flight of dragons and the heroes don’t even have a magic flute or a heavily armored knight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw9bny88OuY
Wait, wrong link. This one is better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qC2P7QYjaE
I looked at this page and went 😳 that’s a lot of dragons. We’re gonna need a bigger wizard lol.
Oh good for a second there I thought we were in trouble.
You take the 20 dragons on the left and I’ll take the 20 on the right!
Presumably Kendal and Tess had already seen that all this was inbound.
Listen all i am saying is 40 dragons counts as a rocks fall everyone dies level encounter for a level 20 party of 6.
And while i hate to say this.
Falst is not level 20 yet, i would say he is like level 11. Tess is only like level 16, erin is perhaps 19.
Which makes this 2 level 20’s verus 40 dragons.
Granted, both of those have wish as a prepared action.
But i dont know if Vash can get our intrepid hero’s out of this one. And dainx might be able to mulch a dragon or two… but that… that is a lot of dragons.
Volcano is about to have quite the interesting time.
BIRDS
(yes i know they’re dragons but look at them!! flock of birds.)
Is Kendal going to just keep losing parts of his shirt? I vote crop top next if so.
Absolute gold of a comment
Leader of the Paladins: “My Lady, how many of our forces do you wish to dispatch to pursuit the Vessel?”
Light Dragon: YES.
Have we received any indication about when we will get Chapter 7?
Usually she posts to the tumblr after a week or a few with when the next chapter starts, then someone forwards that to these comments
This would be a great time for a deus ex Alinua
The gang is almost all back together! Now we just need Alinua…..
I counted roughly 27 Dragons, is Forty Dragons a reference to something that I am just blanking on or was it a generalization?
Anyone know when the next chapter comes out also, did you count them?