I’m really puzzled by the complete lack of mention of Bandit, other than Syr’Nj’s one interjection. Do they all know something inherently that they aren’t saying? Was she abruptly purged from their memories?
Yeah. I’m kind of wondering when someone’s going to ask who buried them, where the heck they are, and how Gravedust pulled this off. (And yes, why Bandit is absent.) Is resurection common? They’re all taking it quite well, considering they were more or less murdered.
Well recall that there was a period we sort of skipped, when Syr’nj sedated Frigg. She mentioned that Gravedust explained the situation to Best at the very least. Mayhap we simply have not been there for the explanation of what happened with Bandit.
As for how well they are taking resurrection, this is a world with flying cities, demon cultists, lava elementals, actual mystics (or mystic) who can speak to ghosts and intelligent bird men. Might not be common but probably not too much of a shocker once they get their bearings.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a guess that she’s gonna turn out to be a regular player and run into the guys again later in the story and be all like “hey guys where the heck have you been” and they’ll be all like”Deadz!” and shell go “me too!” and they’ll lock arms and skip off to the wizards castle.
Nice to know I’m not the only one who knows of the Party Guru, Doma.
And Mark, I have anger issues myself and, yeah, if it weren’t for the dramatic zoom shot in that panel, it’s an epic rage face. But the zoom blurs out the edges of the mouth and eyes just enough for it to be misinterpreted.
I actually started laughing hilariously because, in my mind, I stuck in another panel of Syr’nj looking incredibly shocked between the berserker face panel and the Byron looking sad panel.
As if, OUT OF NOWHERE, he just screams at her for no reason instead of flashbacking.
*looks at picture again*
Nooo . . .that is not “party” to me.
That is an avenging angel of death, come to destroy without thought or mercy, more a force of nature then a thinking being.
Clearly, Occupant, you’ve never partied with Charlie Sheen. A small town in East Mexico pretty much vanished over night. I woke up in Canada, next to a smoking crater, with no memory of how I got there. The last thing I DID remember was Charlie Sheen, making a face pretty close to that one up there, standing over a small mound of cocaine…
1) Did I say “small” mound of cocaine? I meant “large” mound of cocaine.
2) Man, you just have an average brain. You can’t PROCESS it. I don’t think that *I* could even process it. That’s probably why I don’t remember any of it past that point. That, and the fact that the drink I was drinking from at the time tasted a little funny…
Syr shouldn’t be talking about stumps considering the party suffered a number of amputations at the hands of our Byrzerker. But I suppose it’s Best to cleave that in the past.
Look we can slash these puns out, and hack this thread down to size, and get to the real diced up point here. Byron is cut up, and broken, his mind has been ninja’d and he needs some old style elf love.
We’ve been through these blade puns a thousand times. We need a different weapon to pun off of. I can’t wait until we see a character with a drill or something. Those puns tend to be less boring.
Ai-yi-yi-yi, he is the Best-o Banditoooooo!
You like his wacky antics, you love them, you do,
He wants the spotlight and he’ll steal it from you.
Ai-yi-yi-yi, he is the Best-o Banditoooooo!
Give him your praise and he’ll act like your friend,
the Best-o Bandito you must not offend.
Anybody who makes fan art of El Besto the Bandito, complete with giving him a spanish guitar, wiry mustache, and ornate sombrero, should win 10,000,000 internets.
Women also looked for a fixer-upper in a man. Probably can’t find a more broken man than Byron right now. (Besides, they were FAR too lovey-dovey up til now.)
I understand Byron’s gonna feel rotten, but: who the heck holds a person accountable for what their body gets up to once it’s had spears run through the central organs? Yeesh. I think liability ends with death, really.
Possibly Byron’s dual axe power attack completely obliterated her. You know how in D&D people can’t be resurrected if they’ve been disintegrated or Finger of Death-ed? Well…
She lived to nab and it was joy to see.
A clepto-apologist, thieving with glee.
Now I have an idea delight’s at an end.
From her chest her shoulders dear Byron did rend.
Man, in real life, if you’re as Byronic as Byron is, then people avoid you and you get thrown into prison. But he just gets a love interest! No fair, man! Maybe I need to attack my closest friends with axes, just to see if it would work…
He was generally pretty sensible prior to getting clocked (or at least as far as I could tell, having no real combat experience). On a related note, another reason I speculated Sepia World Byron could have been a soldier is because of his “win it as a team” or “solidify the team with a cooperative win” attitude, as shown in the Gigundus fight. That is a tactic of a different sort.
Or maybe he’s middle-management in a customer service department. Or both! What the heck…
Hmm….Berserker tech support staff…could be a problem…
Manager: Tom, that call time was way over 5 minutes. You’re not going to make quota if you don’t speed things up.
BTS: I know, I know, Bob, but that guy took forever to berserk. Seriously, they tried cultists, a giant, pirates, a smarmy bastard, a priestlord construct…it took a figging troll warlord putting a spear through his chest to get he rage app to launch, and now the dude’s running slow.
Manager: Memory issue?
BST: Maybe. He’s been hit in the head a lot.
Manager: Did you offer them a replacement?
BST: Couldn’t. It’s been over a year.
Manager: Ah. Sucks to be be them.
BTS: Tell me about it.
Manager: Look, the queue’s backed up…take some calls, OK?
You’re a lucky guy, Byron.
Say it with me: Awwwww!
Sadserker needs hugs, badly.
A winner is you!
D’awwwww. :3 -group hug-
<3
ka-Hug!
W’indowwww.
I always knew Byron was a great worrier.
This page is truly awwwwww-inspiring.
We’ll stop off to get resupplied at ComFort Dixon first…
D’awwww, they has an us. :)
Owwww! You poked me in the eye with your ear!
I say it with you, awwwww! :D
I’m really puzzled by the complete lack of mention of Bandit, other than Syr’Nj’s one interjection. Do they all know something inherently that they aren’t saying? Was she abruptly purged from their memories?
The other shoe. Drop it, please.
Bandit is too small a character to come up often. And Byron cut her role even further.
Shearly she’ll come up at some point. Or her toes will.
In games like this, we don’t tend to mention people who split on the party like that.
Can’t we even axe about her, now?
I’m afraid they butchered the character in an effort to shoehorn in Byron’s berserking.
I think she’s on the cutting room floor. In several pieces.
Yeah. I’m kind of wondering when someone’s going to ask who buried them, where the heck they are, and how Gravedust pulled this off. (And yes, why Bandit is absent.) Is resurection common? They’re all taking it quite well, considering they were more or less murdered.
Well recall that there was a period we sort of skipped, when Syr’nj sedated Frigg. She mentioned that Gravedust explained the situation to Best at the very least. Mayhap we simply have not been there for the explanation of what happened with Bandit.
As for how well they are taking resurrection, this is a world with flying cities, demon cultists, lava elementals, actual mystics (or mystic) who can speak to ghosts and intelligent bird men. Might not be common but probably not too much of a shocker once they get their bearings.
That is true. However, I wasn’t sedated, and I’d sure like to know what happened. :-D
Didn’t they say something about Bandit informing them later, which would imply she faked her death like rogues often do.
No.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a guess that she’s gonna turn out to be a regular player and run into the guys again later in the story and be all like “hey guys where the heck have you been” and they’ll be all like”Deadz!” and shell go “me too!” and they’ll lock arms and skip off to the wizards castle.
Big girl in charge.
That face in the Berserk panel looks less “rage” and more “PARTY!” to me. And if you look at it just right, it looks really, really happy.
Byron = Andrew W.K.
Nope, ask anybody with an anger problem, that shot pretty well captures it and makes me wonder how the artist knew it so well.
PIANO SOLO
ding ding ding ding
Nice to know I’m not the only one who knows of the Party Guru, Doma.
And Mark, I have anger issues myself and, yeah, if it weren’t for the dramatic zoom shot in that panel, it’s an epic rage face. But the zoom blurs out the edges of the mouth and eyes just enough for it to be misinterpreted.
I actually started laughing hilariously because, in my mind, I stuck in another panel of Syr’nj looking incredibly shocked between the berserker face panel and the Byron looking sad panel.
As if, OUT OF NOWHERE, he just screams at her for no reason instead of flashbacking.
*looks at picture again*
Nooo . . .that is not “party” to me.
That is an avenging angel of death, come to destroy without thought or mercy, more a force of nature then a thinking being.
So, you’ve never been to a frat party, then? :-)
Clearly, Occupant, you’ve never partied with Charlie Sheen. A small town in East Mexico pretty much vanished over night. I woke up in Canada, next to a smoking crater, with no memory of how I got there. The last thing I DID remember was Charlie Sheen, making a face pretty close to that one up there, standing over a small mound of cocaine…
Well, Mr. Winning doesn’t say “party” to be either. Unless it’s a new way of spelling “crazy”. Admittedly, 3 out of the 5 letters are indeed the same.
Actually…
1) Did I say “small” mound of cocaine? I meant “large” mound of cocaine.
2) Man, you just have an average brain. You can’t PROCESS it. I don’t think that *I* could even process it. That’s probably why I don’t remember any of it past that point. That, and the fact that the drink I was drinking from at the time tasted a little funny…
http://i54.tinypic.com/2gwta1j_th.gif
Gold Star.
Genius.
DAMMIT! I had the face cropped out and humorously texted, and then you put this up!
It’s far greater than what I had in store, and I wouldn’t have been able to gif it, anyways, so bravo. And EPILEPSY WARNING!
Excellent. I would’ve done this if I knew how to make a .gif
Thanks, I always wanted a grand mal seizure each morning, really perks one up.
Syr shouldn’t be talking about stumps considering the party suffered a number of amputations at the hands of our Byrzerker. But I suppose it’s Best to cleave that in the past.
Oh and great facial expressions John.
Cut it out, this is no time for puns.
I kindly axe that you refrain for the time-being.
And I agree, the expressions are great.
Look we can slash these puns out, and hack this thread down to size, and get to the real diced up point here. Byron is cut up, and broken, his mind has been ninja’d and he needs some old style elf love.
all these axe puns are starting to feel a little wooden to me.
I haft to agree.
Halberd can they be?
We’ve been through these blade puns a thousand times. We need a different weapon to pun off of. I can’t wait until we see a character with a drill or something. Those puns tend to be less boring.
Or a gun. That will result in puns of an entirely different caliber.
./hurr
Or battle-staves. Those puns would likely stick around for a while.
That’s the spear-it!
Or war-hammers. It would be fun to give that a bash.
C’mon guys, cut it out.
If only daggers return, then we can finally get to the point.
That last panel made me awww. So sweet
Any ally they can get, huh? So is Syrnj saying that in order to get rid of the stump, they have to do a lot of digging? *ba-dum-tsh!*
It’s okay having a stump in your party until they decide to split.
Bandit?
Who?
The only bandit here is El Besto.
El Bestoooooooo!
Stealing the spotlight once agianiooooooo!!!!
El Bestooooooo!!!
I ran out of rhyming wordiooooooooos!
Na na na na na na na
Best-o! Best-o!
Na na na na na na na
Ai-yi-yi-yi, he is the Best-o Banditoooooo!
You like his wacky antics, you love them, you do,
He wants the spotlight and he’ll steal it from you.
Ai-yi-yi-yi, he is the Best-o Banditoooooo!
Give him your praise and he’ll act like your friend,
the Best-o Bandito you must not offend.
I now have a picture in my head of Bandit bursting from Best’s chest cavity, a la “Alien”.
Anybody who makes fan art of El Besto the Bandito, complete with giving him a spanish guitar, wiry mustache, and ornate sombrero, should win 10,000,000 internets.
El Mejor
There was a Bandit in those Jonny Quest cartoons, iirc. Quite the scamp.
THE LONGER YOU COMPLAIN THE LONGER YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT
D’awwwwww, this page is full of sweetness and win. A sad Byron is a great vessel in which to fill with Syr’s love ^_^
Women also looked for a fixer-upper in a man. Probably can’t find a more broken man than Byron right now. (Besides, they were FAR too lovey-dovey up til now.)
Usually it’s the other way around. And in this case would involve the use of the words “pollen” and “flower”.
Panel 4:
“HULK SMASH!!!”
“Something’s coming between us.”
“Yeah; The Kool-Aid Man.”
OOOOOOOH YEEEEAAAAH!!!
for some reason, it’s only now that I realise nobody accused Byron of being seedy two strips ago.
Naah, Brer Birdy just had a flea to pick with him.
A nit to pick with him.
Looks like Byron finally got his much needed hug.
GDI who am I supposed to ship now?! Canon or Non-Canon? Why is the writing so awesome???? ;A;
Birdserker and Tombdirt.
Or I could just go with the good old, tried-and-tested, EVERYONE-some 8D Yes, even Best gets in on it ^w^
I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I understand Byron’s gonna feel rotten, but: who the heck holds a person accountable for what their body gets up to once it’s had spears run through the central organs? Yeesh. I think liability ends with death, really.
Oh yeah, also- D’aaaaawwwww.
yah, but at that point most peoples bodies url up ina ball and die…
byrons went and systematically killed eveyone nearby, so you can understand the sadness…
Is that what causes berserkerism? Too much iron in the bloodstream?
I find your hypothesis somewhat ironic.
And thus why the age-old truism holds: Magneto > Berserkers
Team Mom and Team Dad will solve this problem together–with science!
where be bandit, though? this is unfair, I liked bandit…
Possibly Byron’s dual axe power attack completely obliterated her. You know how in D&D people can’t be resurrected if they’ve been disintegrated or Finger of Death-ed? Well…
I swear you’re just inviting me to nitpick you now :D
Go right ahead, just keep your picky nits out of the basement.
Perhaps we can get Birdserker to pick those nits for you.
She lived to nab and it was joy to see.
A clepto-apologist, thieving with glee.
Now I have an idea delight’s at an end.
From her chest her shoulders dear Byron did rend.
I knew it! As soon as I saw her with no shoes on, on “Flay The Dwarf”‘s last album cover!
Nice.
I knew it! Paul really IS dead!
d’awwww.
I ship this so hard. blahhhh.
This is today’s Guilded Age. It is made of WAFF and d’awwwww.
I guess Frigg’s just hanging with ‘Dusty while they have this delightful point of weakness. Go figure.
I love the facial expressions the last couple of/few pages.
Man, in real life, if you’re as Byronic as Byron is, then people avoid you and you get thrown into prison. But he just gets a love interest! No fair, man! Maybe I need to attack my closest friends with axes, just to see if it would work…
You’d certainly get SOME kind of reaction.
reaxetion!
Tried that. Didn’t work out so well.
The break/fix is in.
D’awww, too cute.
But I can’t help but wonder if the “What do you think?” should be from Byron..?
Come on guys… Haven’t you ever DC’d after a wipe because you didn’t feel like dealing with the /whispers asking why you left the party?
THIS is why we don’t have Bandit…
That or she’s takin’ a Bio break.
I’m surprised no-one has bemoaned the loss of Byron’s military genius. I mean, you’ve gained a half-mad berserker who can kill everyone, sure.
But that really does mean EVERYONE.
On balance, I’d rather have the the susceptible-to-head-injuries tactician on MY team . . .
Cheers,
Cote
From what I remember Byron’s tactics mostly consisted of taking one for the team.
He was generally pretty sensible prior to getting clocked (or at least as far as I could tell, having no real combat experience). On a related note, another reason I speculated Sepia World Byron could have been a soldier is because of his “win it as a team” or “solidify the team with a cooperative win” attitude, as shown in the Gigundus fight. That is a tactic of a different sort.
Or maybe he’s middle-management in a customer service department. Or both! What the heck…
Hmm….Berserker tech support staff…could be a problem…
…this is on your head.
BTS: Berserker Help Line, how may we savage you today?
Bskr: I’m just not going into a frenzy, I’ve tried everything.
BTS: Have you imbibed the sacred herbs and donned the skin of a bear to gain its mighty spirit?
Bskr: Of course I have, what do you take me for?
BTS: Have you struck yourself in the face repeatedly and attempted to bite through a shield?
Bskr: …no.
BTS: I recommend you attempt it.
Bskr: …
BTS: Are you feeling any angrier sir?
Bskr: A little.
BTS: Very good sir, $70 will now be deducted from your account.
Bskr: WRGLGRBLFRGLGRGL!!!
You’ve been listening in on my customer service experiences I see.
Gold Star.
BTS: Berserker Help Line, how may we savage you today?
Syrn’j: Hi, yes…our berserker seems to be down.
BTS: Could you describe the problem?
Syrn’j: Well, he’s very sluggish and sad.
BTS: I thought you said he was down, ma’am.
Syrn’j: Sorry, I meant “depressed.”
BTS: Have you tried shutting him down and restarting him?
Syrn’j: *sigh* Yes…
BTS: We’ll send one of our Best agents to work with you in getting his berserker rage replenished. That should resolve the problem in no time.
Syr’nj: Sounds good. Thanks. *click*
Manager: Tom, that call time was way over 5 minutes. You’re not going to make quota if you don’t speed things up.
BTS: I know, I know, Bob, but that guy took forever to berserk. Seriously, they tried cultists, a giant, pirates, a smarmy bastard, a priestlord construct…it took a figging troll warlord putting a spear through his chest to get he rage app to launch, and now the dude’s running slow.
Manager: Memory issue?
BST: Maybe. He’s been hit in the head a lot.
Manager: Did you offer them a replacement?
BST: Couldn’t. It’s been over a year.
Manager: Ah. Sucks to be be them.
BTS: Tell me about it.
Manager: Look, the queue’s backed up…take some calls, OK?
I keep forgetting to read alt text and then having to go back twenty pages x_x
But seriously, Syr’jn has been my favourite character from pretty much her first appearance, and she hasn’t failed me yet.
Is there a female equivalent to bro-fives?
Well the chest-bump is unisex…but I hear women have some logistical problems with it.