Flo had a better memory than I did for the donor-created characters, so she decided the cast and basic plot of this scene, and I contributed some pacing and dialogue with Flo coming in and adding more lines. It was a more integrated collab than was our usual at this point, which is probably why its rhythm feels a bit more like “classic Guilded Age,” a little one-off adventure that’ll get resolved before the title drop.

I like Markus’ overall self-awareness. He seems perfectly aware how “Death to all wood elves” sounds from the lips of a wood elf, and what it’ll probably eventually mean for him, and like a true dyed-in-the-wool Cultist, he’s totally ready for that.

But for that same reason, I’m not so keen on the last line here, which is one of mine. I’m all for trying to own people with a caption, Isidro, and that language is colorful in a way that suits you. But Markus doesn’t seem likely to regret much. Well, he’ll regret a little slip-up he makes on page 4, but that’s more a head-slap moment than “oh gods, what have I done with my life?”