Annotated 16-10
So here are a few of my notes to Phil: “Auraugu is a crack commando who’s been behind enemy lines (and is the only one to come BACK from that mission), so should Penk be rolling his eyes at him as if he’s an equal? Or is troll pride sufficient to make him see any gnoll as not his better? I already made some revisions to make Penk seem less ungrateful for the INCREDIBLE FAVOR Auraugu has done him, but I’m not sure it’s enough yet.
“What’s their history together? Why did Auraugu take a particular interest in Penk when there are indeed hundreds if not thousands of other troll grunts in the field? Does Penk have some particular ability besides ‘spirit’ that makes him an ideal herald, or is this just Auraugu returning a favor to the guy who was nice enough to fix his mask when another troll accidentally stepped on it?”
Looking back, I don’t think I should have been worried. Auraugu’s ability to move between social strata speaks well of his character, as does the fact that Penk is so used to him that he doesn’t have the same awed regard he has for his own people’s war hero.
Tell him just like that, please. The whole thing! Of all the characters in this series Auraugu is just simply the absolute tops.
Agreed! And these two pages really flesh out and cement his personality. It looks like this is the first appearance of “Hyes.”
Agreed. Auraugu is one of my favorite characters. Beating out even some of the main protagonists.
I found this comic many years ago when I was playing my first game of D&D. Despite being interested in it for decades, I never played until a DM at work asked me to guest-roll a gnoll NPC for section of the campaign he was running with a bunch of my other co-workers. I did some research and ended up here, in the presence of the best character in this entire strip. I was always upset that Auraugu never had a blurb about him on the cast page.
Penk probably played some sicc beats for Auraugu at some point. What better sign of SPIRIT?