. “I just don’t understand why he’s hiding from us!” A Paladin says, voice loud in the quiet woods.
. “Did the army of dragons somehow elude you?” Their companion asks dryly as they walk, more pairs of Paladins in a loose line around them.
. “No– but every Elemental Magus is an army unto themselves! Why is this one running?!”
. “The Champion must’ve really loosened him up for us.”
. “That’s the other thing!” The Paladin cries. “One of them BEAT him!”
. “They HURT him. That’s not the same thing.”
. “Yeah, so badly that Septim Priora came personally to take him back! If they can do THAT–”
. “Then you should be GLAD they’re hiding,” the other Paladin interrupts.
. “No, we’re on the back foot. We should be losing. Badly! If they’re not fighting us, what ELSE are they planning?”
. “Would you please stop pretending you know what strategy is and concentrate on keeping an eye out for–” The Paladin cuts off, pointing their spear at a brown- and-gold blur that shoots past them. The first Paladin shrieks, jumping back.
. “CALEDS! Report!” The lead Paladin with a cape steps up to them, two more caleds approaching quickly, as a lion’s tail disappears into the forest.
. “I- I– sorry, Recten!”
. “What is it? What did you see?”
. “We’re fine, just– It was some kind of animal–!”
. Cutting across the forest floor are a set of tracks, two longer ones and two shorter ones like claws.
GUYS I’M BAAAACK
I’m so sorry 😭
I just fell out of the habit over the break and then we went on vacation and I just never got around to it and then I got writer’s block… but anyway I’m back now, hopefully(Finals, Ugh)😅
I’ll try to do the missing pages at some point 🙂
About the page: That is… certainly a Falst.
WAIT WHAT. Double click on a word while you’re typing a comment so it’s highlighted. Is it just me or is there a list of synonyms?? That’s kinda cool lol
Welcome back!
And also thanks for doing these. As someone who struggles with understanding visual storytelling (beyond ooh pretty) I really appreciate your prose interpretations. They help me keep up with what’s happening on the page, and have frequently pointed out stuff I missed.
These are some well-motivated stormtroopers to be searching for Erin while carrying spears and armor that they know shouldn’t be able to stop him.
The spears and armor are, however, a perfectly fine combination against a fast guy with no armor and only short-range weapons, unless he starts throwing rocks straight through their helmets with his super strength.
I mean, the thing which I’m not sure these guys realize about Erin is that he’s 100% a glass cannon. Those spears and armor might not do them much good if he has the drop on them, but if they were able to surprise Erin first, they could honestly do a lot of damage by just stabbing him, even if he still had full use of all his sealing tattoos.
Arguably, they’d actually be much LESS effective against Falst, since he’s actually really good at hand-to-hand combat and has an extremely powerful healing factor.
True. The Paladins would do much better if they recruited someone fast and stealthy to run Erin down…so pretty much someone with the same skillset as Falst.
It’s a little ironic because Falst has a natural connection to Light. Had the Paladins discovered that before the protagonists recruited him, they probably would have accepted him. And then the protagonists would certainly have lost already, but oh well.
“Why are they running when they could beat us?” Because they’re decent people and they don’t want to kill you, guys!
(Actually, even if the floof squad’s morals vanished into the ether, they’d probably have trouble in a direct confrontation with this many dragons.)
“Every elemental magnus” and “one of them”
How many elemental magnuses have they fought and killed?
None of them even reached the storm as the dark dragon’s “finally” and “could have waited eons more” makes it clear that none of them were ever possessed, so they’ve just been killing innocent ones for no reason except that they have the potential to spring that trap, yet also Erin can walk around for a while flashing his credentials like “I’m the elemental magnus!” and talk to the librarians that didn’t flag these guys until he literally used dark dragon powers in front of them to fight a different dragon.
I’m beginning to get the vibe that they’re used to the idea of being on the same side as an elemental magus, and understanding the mystical chops it takes to be one.
I think “every elemental magus” refers to the soldiers’ education on what the magi are capable of.
“One of them” is Kendal because he sent Tam to the infirmary with the big tropey energy blasts hitting each other.
He’s never been quiet about being the Elemental Magus. I think it’s more that they keep tabs on and research every Elemental Magus over time and only interfere if they think the Magus might be getting too close. Otherwise it would be known that a cult was hunting down powerful mages.
Well, we found the Mook with the anxiety disorder XD
The sass on this page is great. But it also sort of points to *why* Erin is so careful to play by the rules in the public view — WE know he’s an awkward, smartassed, mule-headed genius with constant foot-in-mouth disease, so it’s easy to forget “oh, right, this is the guy for whom casually *shifting an entire city* or *holding every drop in a rainstorm* was an *option*.” They didn’t show up with a pack of dragons because they thought taking him down would be easy.
Falst, conveniently, does not have to play by the rules, does not care what the public thinks, and has had a Very Bad Day.
“You seen that new Stormdrake?”
“Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it’s quit a thing to see-”
(Falst WHIZTs by)
“What was that?”
“It’s nothing. Outgassing, from the volcano. Don’t worry about it.”
Nice to see the mooks thinking about and questioning the situation; their discipline means they’re not going to question their orders, but they are questioning their enemy’s actions. Who knows? If the squad manages to escape while inflicting almost no casualties, these questions might escalate among the Paladin ranks.
Whether it’s serious discussion or more sassy dialogue like this, fingers crossed for more.
Wow, even when emotionally compromised, running full pelt, and right between the Paladin’s, Falst still manages to be the stealthiest member of the gang. He’s might be relatively safe, but he’s not in a good state; methinks Friday’s page will focus on him calming down and analysis what just happened.
Hopefully he does so quickly; Tess is still unaccounted for and looked a little banged-up, so might need help.
I hope they don’t bother investigating further, Falst does not need to be chased through the woods by an angry mob right now. The paladins are kinda giving persistence predators, just slowly hunting down the gang while they get more and more tired from running and fighting them off every time. It’s probably a good thing that they haven’t realized how bad things are for the floof squad.
If the paladins do remember that the elemental magus had a fuzzy friend they might spread their resources thin trying to hunt down Falst, which could help Erin’s odds, but it also feels very thematic to just have them write Falst off as an animal in the woods and frees him up to do something stupid on his own terms. While I remain unconvinced that they’re getting off this island without Consequences, Falst still seems best equipped to execute an actual Plan of Attack, barring Tess being Fine, Actually or an Alinua Ex Machina.
I do wonder why exactly the paladin soldiers’ uniform covers up SO much of their entire bodies. You get absolutely zero details on what any of them might look like other than how tall they are. Either they’re just really thorough about protecting their heads or they’re thorough about protecting their identities from the real life societal consequences of whatever they get up to while doing paladin work, up to and including, y’know, actual crimes. I do NOT trust armies that feel the need to conceal themselves and allow their soldiers to live double lives if they want to!! REALLY NOT A FAN OF THESE GUYS!! “ARE WE THE BADDIES?” Just a theory though of course……
For a Doylist explanation, it’s easier to draw a lot of people if they all look the same, just with minor height tweaks. Giving the Paladin mooks the same face-concealing helmet, plain armour, and loose clothing cuts down time and simplifies proof-drawing.
For a Watsonian explanation, helmets are one of the most important pieces of armour you could have, so having a full helmet to protect the whole head makes total sense. We’ve also seen clothing that can protect from blows like Dainix’s poncho; the Paladins’s clothes could function similarly. Or maybe it’s to protect against the elements; Rakhn can be both very cold and very hot at the same time.
If I may posit another reason, it could be used for a nice reveal. We know from tumblr lore that Ferin can use Light magic and there are Ferin Paladins, but Falst doesn’t know this. What if during a fight, Falst knocks off the helmet of one of these mooks and it reveals … another Ferin. Another Ferin using Light magic would upend how he views himself and his mysterious powers.
Love the faceless moooks actually questioning what the hell they’re supposed to do against the floof squad. Like, Totally right, on paper, they would be demolished. Honestly, I’m impressed they have the moral to keep going.
As someone who has done a bit of wildlife tracking, let me info dump about speed: There are 3 rules when it comes to speed:
#1 The longer the distance between tracks (stride), the faster the animal was moving.
#2 The narrower the width of the tracks (straddle), the faster.
#3 The deeper and more detailed the tracks are in the the ground or snow, the faster.
Additionally, The style of moving (gait) usually changes with a faster speed. For instance, a slow moving weasel will walk one foot at a time when hunting for food, but when moving fast they will pretty much leap into the air, and lope forward, which leaves a T-bone shaped impression in snow. It kinda looks like someone kept dropping a dog’s chew bone every 1-2 meters. As a general rule, the farther forward the back feet are, the faster the animal is going.
To evaluate the tracks we see: The straddle of the track is wide, the stride is undetermined because we do not see repetition of the same back or front feet, and the imprint in the ground is very clear, with individual claws being visible. The back feet are behind the front feet, with no overlap (register). With only this information, I would assume that Falst is actually hopping. This would mean there is likely a long gap between four sets of impressions. However, given the way Red has previously drawn Falst, I would have assumed more of a lopping or galloping motion. I assume she just didn’t pay too much attention to it given it is just one panel in the story, but that won’t stop me from wasting 45 minutes of my life writing this comment.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: you can tell by the heel impression that they’re really wracked with inner turmoil right now
Image source: animal
Tumblr text: two roads briefly intersected in a yellow wood
Bluesky text: did I just hear a “whoosh”?
No, no. A ‘whizt’, not a ‘whoosh’. 😀
. “I just don’t understand why he’s hiding from us!” A Paladin says, voice loud in the quiet woods.
. “Did the army of dragons somehow elude you?” Their companion asks dryly as they walk, more pairs of Paladins in a loose line around them.
. “No– but every Elemental Magus is an army unto themselves! Why is this one running?!”
. “The Champion must’ve really loosened him up for us.”
. “That’s the other thing!” The Paladin cries. “One of them BEAT him!”
. “They HURT him. That’s not the same thing.”
. “Yeah, so badly that Septim Priora came personally to take him back! If they can do THAT–”
. “Then you should be GLAD they’re hiding,” the other Paladin interrupts.
. “No, we’re on the back foot. We should be losing. Badly! If they’re not fighting us, what ELSE are they planning?”
. “Would you please stop pretending you know what strategy is and concentrate on keeping an eye out for–” The Paladin cuts off, pointing their spear at a brown- and-gold blur that shoots past them. The first Paladin shrieks, jumping back.
. “CALEDS! Report!” The lead Paladin with a cape steps up to them, two more caleds approaching quickly, as a lion’s tail disappears into the forest.
. “I- I– sorry, Recten!”
. “What is it? What did you see?”
. “We’re fine, just– It was some kind of animal–!”
. Cutting across the forest floor are a set of tracks, two longer ones and two shorter ones like claws.
GUYS I’M BAAAACK
I’m so sorry 😭
I just fell out of the habit over the break and then we went on vacation and I just never got around to it and then I got writer’s block… but anyway I’m back now, hopefully(Finals, Ugh)😅
I’ll try to do the missing pages at some point 🙂
About the page: That is… certainly a Falst.
WAIT WHAT. Double click on a word while you’re typing a comment so it’s highlighted. Is it just me or is there a list of synonyms?? That’s kinda cool lol
Welcome back!
And also thanks for doing these. As someone who struggles with understanding visual storytelling (beyond ooh pretty) I really appreciate your prose interpretations. They help me keep up with what’s happening on the page, and have frequently pointed out stuff I missed.
Thanks sm!!! It’s great to hear people like what I’m doing 😀
Love the guard for asking good questions.
That’s got to be the best Faceless Mook I’ve ever seen.
So it would seem
These are some well-motivated stormtroopers to be searching for Erin while carrying spears and armor that they know shouldn’t be able to stop him.
The spears and armor are, however, a perfectly fine combination against a fast guy with no armor and only short-range weapons, unless he starts throwing rocks straight through their helmets with his super strength.
Falst has used magic with the assistance of a power source, we don’t know that they were all in the cauldera.
I mean, the thing which I’m not sure these guys realize about Erin is that he’s 100% a glass cannon. Those spears and armor might not do them much good if he has the drop on them, but if they were able to surprise Erin first, they could honestly do a lot of damage by just stabbing him, even if he still had full use of all his sealing tattoos.
Arguably, they’d actually be much LESS effective against Falst, since he’s actually really good at hand-to-hand combat and has an extremely powerful healing factor.
True. The Paladins would do much better if they recruited someone fast and stealthy to run Erin down…so pretty much someone with the same skillset as Falst.
It’s a little ironic because Falst has a natural connection to Light. Had the Paladins discovered that before the protagonists recruited him, they probably would have accepted him. And then the protagonists would certainly have lost already, but oh well.
First lol
That last panel is confusing
Yeah, what’s going on there? My best guess is that it’s Falst’s pov, but even then, that doesn’t yield much information about how he’s doing.
I’m pretty sure those are speed lines. Falst has run out of view
My boi is running. Very Fast. Poor Falst!
He* zoomin’
*”He” is Falst
I think it’s from Falst’s pov
“Hans are we the baddies” energy
“Some kind of animal”
…yeah, uh, poor choice of words there.
“It had red fur and was being a surprisingly good drummer!”
“Why are they running when they could beat us?” Because they’re decent people and they don’t want to kill you, guys!
(Actually, even if the floof squad’s morals vanished into the ether, they’d probably have trouble in a direct confrontation with this many dragons.)
I got aurora vol 2!!
Read it over the weekend, so good!! Eeee!
“Every elemental magnus” and “one of them”
How many elemental magnuses have they fought and killed?
None of them even reached the storm as the dark dragon’s “finally” and “could have waited eons more” makes it clear that none of them were ever possessed, so they’ve just been killing innocent ones for no reason except that they have the potential to spring that trap, yet also Erin can walk around for a while flashing his credentials like “I’m the elemental magnus!” and talk to the librarians that didn’t flag these guys until he literally used dark dragon powers in front of them to fight a different dragon.
I’m beginning to get the vibe that they’re used to the idea of being on the same side as an elemental magus, and understanding the mystical chops it takes to be one.
I think “every elemental magus” refers to the soldiers’ education on what the magi are capable of.
“One of them” is Kendal because he sent Tam to the infirmary with the big tropey energy blasts hitting each other.
In zuurith he flashed his emissary sigil, not as elemental magus.
He’s never been quiet about being the Elemental Magus. I think it’s more that they keep tabs on and research every Elemental Magus over time and only interfere if they think the Magus might be getting too close. Otherwise it would be known that a cult was hunting down powerful mages.
‘Some kind of animal’
My sir, watch your language! That is Falst, and he is a person, thank you very much!
You are right Faceless Mook, they are planning something! How not to hurt you too bad while escaping.
Well, we found the Mook with the anxiety disorder XD
The sass on this page is great. But it also sort of points to *why* Erin is so careful to play by the rules in the public view — WE know he’s an awkward, smartassed, mule-headed genius with constant foot-in-mouth disease, so it’s easy to forget “oh, right, this is the guy for whom casually *shifting an entire city* or *holding every drop in a rainstorm* was an *option*.” They didn’t show up with a pack of dragons because they thought taking him down would be easy.
Falst, conveniently, does not have to play by the rules, does not care what the public thinks, and has had a Very Bad Day.
“You seen that new Stormdrake?”
“Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it’s quit a thing to see-”
(Falst WHIZTs by)
“What was that?”
“It’s nothing. Outgassing, from the volcano. Don’t worry about it.”
Nice to see the mooks thinking about and questioning the situation; their discipline means they’re not going to question their orders, but they are questioning their enemy’s actions. Who knows? If the squad manages to escape while inflicting almost no casualties, these questions might escalate among the Paladin ranks.
Whether it’s serious discussion or more sassy dialogue like this, fingers crossed for more.
Wow, even when emotionally compromised, running full pelt, and right between the Paladin’s, Falst still manages to be the stealthiest member of the gang. He’s might be relatively safe, but he’s not in a good state; methinks Friday’s page will focus on him calming down and analysis what just happened.
Hopefully he does so quickly; Tess is still unaccounted for and looked a little banged-up, so might need help.
I understood that reference XDDD
Was this…. A Star Wars reference!?!?!
You betcha! 2 Stormtroopers talking about the new model of speeders and Obi Wan distracts them so he can sneak past [on the Death Star].
I’m enjoying this argument between the soldiers a lot! 🙂
meep meep!
Looks like a lot of people called it for annoy the paladins Fast techniques
Gotta be the smartest soldier so far to realize all of that.
FALST! YIPPEE!
I hope they don’t bother investigating further, Falst does not need to be chased through the woods by an angry mob right now. The paladins are kinda giving persistence predators, just slowly hunting down the gang while they get more and more tired from running and fighting them off every time. It’s probably a good thing that they haven’t realized how bad things are for the floof squad.
If the paladins do remember that the elemental magus had a fuzzy friend they might spread their resources thin trying to hunt down Falst, which could help Erin’s odds, but it also feels very thematic to just have them write Falst off as an animal in the woods and frees him up to do something stupid on his own terms. While I remain unconvinced that they’re getting off this island without Consequences, Falst still seems best equipped to execute an actual Plan of Attack, barring Tess being Fine, Actually or an Alinua Ex Machina.
Congrats on Volume 2, BTW!!!!!!!
I agree, shorter faceless mook! You should be questioning tactics!
oh golly me it’s a definitely totally unidentifiable blur
He’s a runner he’s a track star
Sometimes, ya gotta split the party.
An animal?
Probably in the sheets, but we have to ask Dainix later.
I do wonder why exactly the paladin soldiers’ uniform covers up SO much of their entire bodies. You get absolutely zero details on what any of them might look like other than how tall they are. Either they’re just really thorough about protecting their heads or they’re thorough about protecting their identities from the real life societal consequences of whatever they get up to while doing paladin work, up to and including, y’know, actual crimes. I do NOT trust armies that feel the need to conceal themselves and allow their soldiers to live double lives if they want to!! REALLY NOT A FAN OF THESE GUYS!! “ARE WE THE BADDIES?” Just a theory though of course……
For a Doylist explanation, it’s easier to draw a lot of people if they all look the same, just with minor height tweaks. Giving the Paladin mooks the same face-concealing helmet, plain armour, and loose clothing cuts down time and simplifies proof-drawing.
For a Watsonian explanation, helmets are one of the most important pieces of armour you could have, so having a full helmet to protect the whole head makes total sense. We’ve also seen clothing that can protect from blows like Dainix’s poncho; the Paladins’s clothes could function similarly. Or maybe it’s to protect against the elements; Rakhn can be both very cold and very hot at the same time.
If I may posit another reason, it could be used for a nice reveal. We know from tumblr lore that Ferin can use Light magic and there are Ferin Paladins, but Falst doesn’t know this. What if during a fight, Falst knocks off the helmet of one of these mooks and it reveals … another Ferin. Another Ferin using Light magic would upend how he views himself and his mysterious powers.
Ooohhh is this going to lead into Falst experimenting more with his light magic abilities? Just him and the paladins…
Love the faceless moooks actually questioning what the hell they’re supposed to do against the floof squad. Like, Totally right, on paper, they would be demolished. Honestly, I’m impressed they have the moral to keep going.
Love to hear the stormtroopers bickering
YAAYYY FALST :DDD
As someone who has done a bit of wildlife tracking, let me info dump about speed: There are 3 rules when it comes to speed:
#1 The longer the distance between tracks (stride), the faster the animal was moving.
#2 The narrower the width of the tracks (straddle), the faster.
#3 The deeper and more detailed the tracks are in the the ground or snow, the faster.
Additionally, The style of moving (gait) usually changes with a faster speed. For instance, a slow moving weasel will walk one foot at a time when hunting for food, but when moving fast they will pretty much leap into the air, and lope forward, which leaves a T-bone shaped impression in snow. It kinda looks like someone kept dropping a dog’s chew bone every 1-2 meters. As a general rule, the farther forward the back feet are, the faster the animal is going.
To evaluate the tracks we see: The straddle of the track is wide, the stride is undetermined because we do not see repetition of the same back or front feet, and the imprint in the ground is very clear, with individual claws being visible. The back feet are behind the front feet, with no overlap (register). With only this information, I would assume that Falst is actually hopping. This would mean there is likely a long gap between four sets of impressions. However, given the way Red has previously drawn Falst, I would have assumed more of a lopping or galloping motion. I assume she just didn’t pay too much attention to it given it is just one panel in the story, but that won’t stop me from wasting 45 minutes of my life writing this comment.