Chapter 38 – Page 30 & 31
And that brings this big boy to a close! ERRYBODY GETTIN’ STABBED IN THE BACK UP IN HERE!!
Comic will be posting late on Monday because T and I will be at TOPATOCON! Find us at table A6 in the entrance hall! We’ll sell you things and make excellent small talk!
My surprise is palpable.
that pun left a bad taste in my mouth
err, I may have misunderstood the word ‘palpable’ thinking it was to taste. I’ll just go and hide in shame.
Yeah, I’m thinking you mean “palatable.”
It’s like palatable, but with more pulp.
Like orange juice!
It’s time to soup up the effort and save these pun threads from choking.
Yeah, I was expecting him to smother the guy with a pillow.
In a world with magical healers and potions, I’m surprised that the nobility and the rich suffer from disease for longer than it takes to get to an apothecary and order up a bottle of ‘Cure Miner’s Lung’.
Eh. He was probably going to die, anyway. From what I understand, black lung generally has a pretty high fatality rate. Iwatani likely did him a favor. What a nice friend.
Well, some Disease debuffs aren’t cleansable. He must have ran afoul of a raid boss.
They’re lucky he didn’t port to a capital and spread Miner’s Lung to the entire server.
Ah, Corrupted Blood. Sweet infamy. :D
Actually, have we seen magical instant healing? When we first saw her, Syr’Nj had to mend a soldiers wounds using more mundane methods. And the cure she has for the berzerker curse took research time.
The only magic healing I think we’ve seen is Gravy resurrecting everyone from death. And that was seen as something of a miracle.
Fr’Nj can heal plants. And Rachel once mentioned that it was theoretically possible to channel her holy power into healing, but she never was able to pull it off successfully. That’s about it. There are probably one or two other obscure situations where healing magic has been mentioned or used by someone under very specific circumstances, but it’s definitely not common.
Leaving magical healing out of this world was honestly a really good choice by the writers – it makes injuries and tragedies far more meaningful.
Would not say it’s left out, more so that the uses are too abstract–and no hands willing to shape it proper.
Hmm, now where can we find someone who speaks with the restless dead, I wonder?
The top of the suspects list, I’m afraid. The late Guildmaster was not well loved by the dwarves.
Parts unknown. Last seen abandoning his duties with a corpse into an sky elf portal.
Channeling the spirit of the dead probably isn’t admissible in court.
Honestly, in a fantasy universe? It SHOULD be.
A father must take the time to bond with his progeny.
You lucked out on gravatars right here.
This entire chapter has been good for His Grace Iwatani.
Does he even know his son’s name? Or does he call him “boy”, so he doesn’t grow too attached to him, in case he proves not to be a worthy heir?
I see him as the Tywin-Lannister-Type… he doesn’t see the possibility that his son won’t prove a worthy heir.
I could bet Iwatani will find his doom at the hands of his son. No idea if that will make him happy or not.
Those are always some of the most interesting villains- the ones who are so honestly true to their credo of “Might makes Right” “Power is all” etc. etc., that they’re genuinely happy when a trusted confidant, close friend or dear family member turns those scruples right back on them. Like the Emperor applauding Luke for going berserk on Vader- stuff like that. (I’m sure I’ve seen it elsewhere, but it’s normally only in sort of off-the-radar works).
I believe there was an episode like that with General Skarr on Cartoon Network.
“You…betrayed me?” -begins tear up and smile “I’m so proud.”
Senator Armstrong in Revengeance, as well. I mean, he’s completely loco, but you can’t help but like the guy.
Jack Slash in Worm, too (of course, it’s not because he’s true to some credo, but because to him, backstabbing is just another delightful game to play).
As if I didn’t have enough reason to hate Iwatani.
Well, unless this story’s a lot more cynical than it’s made itself out to be so far, some day Iwatani’s going to get his comeuppance.
And we’ll all be there to see it.
Calling it now, he’ll get his comeuppance by being killed by his own son, who wants to usurp his power.
But will the son get his own comeuppance as well? And in what manner and form will it be?
@Dave: Ditto. Ditto.
Run over by a Gnomish war machine?
Not the worst way to go, if you ask me.
And I kind of think he deserves the worst way! Anybody got any ideas!?
Boiled in oil!!
Maybe he’ll have a moment of redemption, turn his back on his former life, and become a wandering paladin, upholding honor and virtue wherever he goes in order to pay for his past sins!
Haha no just kidding he’ll probably be sacrificed on an altar by the cultists, while yelling that they can’t do that because his family is too important
Paladinhood doesn’t sounds entirely out of the question, if by that we mean having him act as Frigg’s squire for a few years. She’d keep him out of trouble, and I think he’d take to someone who teaches that being a loud beligerant doesn’t require being evil.
Also, his family’s money can go towards E-Merl’s college debt, which at this point might be only slightly greater than the cost of rebuilding gnometown.
It’s both overkill and that Iwatani is practically gloating that does it for me. He’ll probably blame the nurse to be an even bigger prick.
And the alt text is:
“Ooh, Ooh! Father! Let’s blame THE HELP!”
My guess he will blame a dwarf!
Both duh! The help was paid by dwarves to assassinate him. Obviously.
Missed it since there are 2 alt texts. I only read the one on the top.
Hadn’t realised that – thanks!
It’s actually rather pragmatic of him to do so; as she is the only person (other than his son) that witnessed him take the medicine to Persson. Doing this allows him to utilize a liability to his advantage.
Still also vial thing to do even absent personal maleficence towards her. (heh)
Much like that vial of poison he used
Oh wait, that was the joke.
Man, Iwatani sure is good at making himself likable. Up until this page I was getting over my outrage at him being in league with the cultists, but that died along with… well…
Spoken like a man who gets along with his in-laws better than most.
Said it before, and I’ll say it again: Anyone above middle management should, at all times, be wearing a spring loaded wrist blade.
That’s an astonishingly quick reaction to the Pink Lemonade of Death, there. Like, even if you pumped something straight into a major vein, it would take a good thirty seconds to kick in. It’s like they’re in a video game or something ಠ_ಠ.
Also interesting: for some reason, Taro was significantly more creeped out by the cultists sitting and drinking tea than he is watching his “uncle” foam at the mouth and die in front of him. Maybe he’s playing along to make sure he isn’t next on the chopping block, maybe the damage caused by his father’s little deal is hardening him to other people’s suffering … or maybe lack of empathy runs in the family and he’s only worried if in danger.
Also also: damn it guys, you’re not going to have any likeable characters left if you keep killing them off at this rate!
I would say Taro was more creeped put by the cultists because that was a legit position of danger for him to be in. This, not as much.
Aww, what an adorable little sociopath Iwatani is raising. I really hope this bites him in the ass way in the future.
How do you know much time it took? Maybe there’s a minute and a half of soup-drinking between panels!
Next time, they should definitely show eight panels in a row of silent soup slurping to accurately convey the time frame.
There are poisons that act that fast. Usually by causing a reaction that closes the airway (hence the foam). Some of them can even be extracted from common houseplants scarily enough…
The fact that most of them taste pretty darn bad says something about the usual quality of the soup though. They tend to be hard to use unless the person gulps his food or expects the food to be borderline inedible…
Heck, there is a small amount of cyanide in apple seeds. Get enough of them gathered up, grind them down into dust and just mix them into a drink and voila, instant murder.
…erm, please don’t actually test this
You assume the murder weapon was poison…it may well be that it was not poison, but highly corrosive acid.
“You see, son, when there’s an older authority figure in the way of your plans, all you have to do is slip a little poison in their soup.”
“Thank you, father! This is useful information, that I am sure to need to use later. By the way, what kind of soup do you like?”
Charismatic, ingenious, treacherous and greedy.
Again, there’s nothing ingenious about cutting the branch you’re sitting on. I’m all for playing two sides against each other for fun and profit, but this chapter has been more than that. Actively undermining your own base power, the one that it took you decades to establish, and then what? Hoping that the apocalyptic murder-death-kill cult of self-destruction has saved a spot for you on the board of directors? He thinks there will be a legacy to worry about. Legacy!
Honestly, this reminds me of how the Littlefinger character is written on the GOT show. (Spoiler alert, he’s written poorly.) “Nyah, I’m a mustache-twirling villain that goes from one hare-brained scheme to another, pretending that they all somehow magically advance my supposed personal interest, nyah!”
… questioning the parenting logic of teaching you kid to get what he wants by murder.
The trick is deciding when to teach him how to get away with it.
Worse, the murder of older family members.
Well… worse from a personal practical standpoint.
That’s sad. It was a vial way to go.
Of course he was fuming.
Foaming.
Whatever.
And like that Iwatani has taught his son how best to deal with him. Of course, Taro being Taro, he’ll screw it up and Iwatani will ground him for a month afterwards.
Silly boy. I trust nothing that I have not prepared with my own hands. And now you’ve gone and killed my tester. *tsk* *tsk*
“It took twenty tries to kill my father. And, to be honest? The last time was totally an accident. We had a pretty good laugh about it, in fact.
“Still. Best training in the world. Although he kept insisting that I write out what I did wrong, afterwards.”
For show and tell, I brought the guildmaster my dad killed yesterday. Sorry for the stench, he did not fit into the jar.
Dammit. I didn’t think the guy was going to survive, but I was hoping…
Side effects may include…
(This is the second comic this month I’ve been able to use that comment.)
I can’t wait for this prick to get his comeuppance. High quality villainry here, Phil, T and John.
“And that’s why you don’t eat toothpaste, son”
That makes me wonder why, exactly, is Iwatani insisting on including Syr’Nj into their little club. He’s smart enough to know full well that she’s far too idealistic to consider their actions just and necesarry.
Probably Altruists are gonna do something horrible and pin it on her. But that’s just a hunch.
I’m not sure whether the rest of the little club is aware of all of Iwatani’s actions. I don’t think they know about his deal with the cultists and I assume they didn’t know about him assasinating Person.
I remember someone in the previous comments being endeared by Iwatani’s respect for commom folk
I bet he’s pinning the murder on the nurse.
Well there goes my Persson theory.
AW COME ON! Persson was my favourite! He was waaay more decent than the rest! Somebody bunch Iwatani for me!
Huh. I didn’t actually think he would do it. Seemed too blunt, and not strictly necessary. I mean, it’s obvious from their conversation here that Persson was dead weight as far as Iwatani’s concerned, but he wasn’t currently weighing the other “altruists” down. There should’ve been plenty of opportunities to eliminate him more discreetly, if the black lung didn’t kill him first. And unless Iwatani had this sanctioned by the other heads of houses, I think they’re going to suspect him.
I’m also a bit sad, because like with Rabbit, I was hoping to see Persson develop as a character. But Taro being absolutely giddy with excitement almost makes up for it. ^_^
It should be noted that this is still the chapter that kicked off with this. Feels like ages ago.
The conclusion: This chapter has been fucking awesome.
The difference between poison and black lung is that with poison he gets to blame someone for the assassination.
But it might not serve any political purpose at all to kill Persson. He might just be doing it for no other reason than to train his son.
Perhaps, though as hinted in these pages, it seems that Persson was having some regrets about refusing to give the dwarves back any of their homeland. My guess is Iwatani could read that he was slowly getting compromised by his emotions and decided to put a permanent solution in place.
So yeah, saw that coming.
And there were people who said he wouldn’t be so obvious. Yeah…
…Everyone saw it coming from the other side of the observable universe. That’s exactly why we thought it was too obvious.
So congratulations on seeing it after everyone else, I guess.
Not sure if that level of meta-obviousness makes any sense to me. Still obvious. Eh.
never knew Mr. Bubble was so dangerous. to think i used to have bathe in the stuff 0.0
That FUCKER. I actually liked that guy.
“Gastonia was built by takers, not givers. Not even keepers.”
Okay fair enough Your Grace Iwatani. But that does not clarify Gastonia’s stances on beings finders, losers or weepers. Inquiring minds want to know.
You know, Iwatani, I’m going to ignore the fact that you apparently want to raise your son to be a murderous sociopath who will one day follow your example by stabbing you in the back to collect life insurance, because being an asshole is apparently something that your family takes pride in. And I’m also not going to criticize your supervillain speech because, let’s face it, taunting a dying foe is probably the best part of being evil.
But bringing Taro in as a witness pretty much has no tactical benefit on your part. At best, he’ll spill the beans to save his own hide when one of your enemies (political or otherwise) puts a knife to his throat. At worst, he’ll blab about this in public without much prompting, because kids are not very good at keeping secrets.