We’ve done hands covers before, we’ve done weapons covers before, but I think this is our first hands-waving-weapons cover! Woo-hoo, woo-hoo! Gas-to-ni-AY, Gas-to-ni-AY!

This chapter is still fairly calm, but it sets the wheels in motion a bit more than the last chapter’s work brunch. And yet the gathering of arms depicted here is probably the least interesting part of it for me: the story also has a couple of crackling confrontations in Sepia World and the introduction of one to seven new characters. Depends on how you count, but the one definite and six maybes will all be pretty dang important to upcoming developments.

I’ve been puzzling over E-Merl’s wand for a couple of minutes. Sky elf gift? Don’t think he uses it in combat, does he? Did we show him getting this wand somewhere and I forgot? I thought the bangle was the big addition… Maybe we just didn’t want the poor guy to be the only fightin’ Peacemaker excluded here.