“We’ll make sure to let you take it up with him… the next time he’s berzerking.” :P
She wasn’t the only one in danger of being killed by Byron during his fit; none of them knew he’d become a raging murderous machine that would kill friend and foe. She just happened to have failed her perception check, which is pretty sad considering it’s supposed to be one of her strong points as a rogue. x3
Wow, the “quote” thingy I just posted goes AWESOME with the gravatar I got! For being random, they sure do end up being good coincidental visual aids. :3
What? That’s what happened to me. Okay, there was the whole “consume the souls of the living and lay waste to the world in the name of the Lich King” thing, but I’m working on that.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work if it’s really extra potent trolls blood.
Obviously troll blood in the Guilded Age universe is a panacea and in its diluted form is sold as potions for very minor injuries (papercuts, scrapes, etc). Actual trolls blood would be used to heal greater (but still minor) injuries, cuts, lesser stab wounds, blunt trauma.
Harky’s blood is concentrated troll blood that allows fixing of GAPING WOUNDS and HAVING YOUR ARMS TORN OFF. If you could then concentrate his extra potent troll blood, you have as close to immortality as possible.
Could be that the only way to effectively kill a supertroll like Harky would be to bleed him dry, burn him to death, or use some kind of disease/virus that kills off his body faster than he can heal.
Mainly it’s his gem in his belly that was enhancing his natural abilities. If his blood went on her, it would have most likely only had the normal effects, not the same effects that Harki gains from his magical enhancements.
Hell, I was dying from cancer before I killed and devoured a guy who started a flame war on the internet. Now I’m fine! My doctor prescribes only the best cures!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, he’s invited me over to dinner. Wants me to bring some farva beans and a nice Chianti. Don’t know why anyone would want to eat farva beans, but the dude saved my life, so what do I care?
They have a major risk of acting as a vector for hemorrhaging and other undesirable medical conditions.
This is why modern SCA reenactors insist on covering them with a rubber first.
Yes, I think thats not exactly credible. Sounds like the bullcrap it probably is. So, if Syrn’j acts like she believes, I say either she is playing along, or the party members lean toward believing anything that keeps the status quo of their world as it is (words from bandit, or words that explain somewhat their respawning, or whatever) despite common sense. Either of those is easier to believe than Syrn’j being simple minded.
She’s suspicious but doesn’t have the ground to come up with other possibilites, so she’s kinda at an impasse. It sounds like a lie, but what IS the lie? And why? She can’t really answer those questions yet, so there’s no reason to press.
Bandit’s explanation is weak, and Syr’nj is suspicious of it, but tentatively accepts it. Our attention is drawn to both points.
At this point, I’m inclined to think that Bandit is Carol. I’m pretty sure she’s making an effort to keep hidden the facts that she knows that she’s in an MMORPG, and that she knows that Syr’nj and company don’t know it.
That’s exactly my thoughts on the matter. She’s real world, probably Carol, and can’t offer a better in-game explanation. “I dunno” is a pretty hard excuse to break, even if it is fishy.
There’re the alternate theories that allege Bandit is an NPC, and therefore we shouldn’t care about her (which is part of the Bandit versus Best argument), and that she is played by either Dedalus or Carol (his assistant). No-one actually knows anything, and this is all based on Bandit and Best seeming to tag-team as fifth member of the party, and Bandit wearing purple.
If Bandit is controlled by Daedalus (or his secretary, though I’m not a big believer in that sub-theory), why on Earth would “Bandit” play along with the idea that respawning is unusual? …Or is this one of those “hardcore” MMOs in which you legitimately can’t respawn normally?
OTOH, if Bandit is a normal NPC, then why would she revive? Harki’s blood being that strong is such an odd and unsatisfying explanation. Could she be alive simply because up to 4 of the 5 people shaping the world wanted her to be, and the world looked for some thin justification to allow it? Gah, this is a mind screw.
Perhaps whoever is her player dislikes breaking the fourth wall for some reason? Perhaps he/she is afraid that the players could get a bit mad if they found out that their created memories are just that and that alone?
Because the five don’t know that they’re in an MMO, that’s why. And, as I’ve said before, they’re likely tucked into their own private test server, so that Arag0rn_teh_Mighty can’t ruin what they’re trying to do.
“If Bandit is controlled by Daedalus (or his secretary, though I’m not a big believer in that sub-theory), why on Earth would “Bandit” play along with the idea that respawning is unusual?”
Because the five don’t know they’re in an MMO. Returning from the dead should be unusual, even in most fantasy MMOs people don’t acknowledge just returning from the dead as something that happens every fifteen minutes.
I’ve played on two MMORPGs where many of the roleplayers did treat returning from the dead as a frequent occurrence. In Asheron’s Call, I don’t think the game developers anticipated it; roleplayers generally treated the process with suspicion, as if there was some subtle corrupting influence in the process. In EVE Online, it was more emphatically understood as part of a profound alienation the player characters experienced.
In both cases, it was played out that returning from the dead was dehumanizing, that coming back each time meant you were less human. In EVE Online, in particular, the roleplayers had the sense that player characters rapidly became inhuman monsters — making it very difficult to roleplay in a satisfying way.
I think it would actually make more sense for Bandit to play along if she’s really Dedalus or Carol. They’re the only ones who know the true nature of the adventuring party’s real life counterparts. I don’t think they’d just go shattering their worldview.
That’s just some warm lamp light coming from the hallway behind Syr’Nj. Probably should’ve put a few wooden beams back there or something. It IS sort of a close-up shot, and the hallway was shown on the previous page, so… oh well.
Her lucky rabbits foot blocked the axes and when she woke up she assumed it was troll blood, well the rabbits’ foot and the bottle of Heinz ketchup she had stuffed down her jumper…
She was so paralysed with shock at the sight of all that ketchup that she passed her play dead roll until she could sneak off of course those trollkin that spotted her assumed she was a ghost or a ghoul infected with battle madness and decided to take the rest of the night off and drink themselves senseless…
Nah I’m pretty sure it’s a plot point. You know maybe they resurrected her and are controlling her actions? Or maybe she multi classed? Pointless conjecture aside I’m sure that it is in fact important.
I wonder if there’s a RP filter in place. You talk about something RL or in Leet and it translates it to something more appropriate. I used Eloquence on WoW for a while and it did something similar. A filter would translate a lot of Frigg’s comments and could logically make ‘I just rez’d’ into something like ‘A force beyond my ken brought me back.’
If we had never found out about Sepia World, there would be mystery and tension. Now it’s just “Meh, a mod did it.”
I’m sure there’s supposed to be some good reason why we have been shown the action backstage in the middle of the play, but for now it’s acting like a huge momentum deadener and mood-killer. It’s like if you were watching Star Wars, and you saw several “dead” Stormtroopers get up, wander off-stage, and take a smoke break.
I may be gasping with delight later when the Big Reveal comes along and shows how it all fits together like a Chinese box, but for now, I’m relying on the quirky characters and fun banter to see me through. That, and the hope that Best is really gone for good.
Just realized there is only one hope mentioned in your post, I kinda extended the notion to your entire line of thought. I’ve no idea if you know what I mean but this is what you get without an edit/delete comment option.
I find it odd that everyone jumps to the conclusion that it must be a player respawning or a ‘game master’ intervening that has Bandit back, or even that Bandit is making things up. Sure those are possibilities. Also possible is that some in-game force caused her to survive, she honestly doesn’t know what it is, and is grasping at straws. The true nature of her return will probably be important in any of these cases.
Also, I find the imprisonment line odd. Why not tell the truth? All I can think of is that she doesn’t trust bandit, possibly due to suspicion that Bandit is lying? Weird.
Syrnj is lying because they came back from the dead. That’s not something that happens. It’s crazy talk. You don’t just go telling people that you were dead and came back.
Even in their world there’s things that are possible and things that are not. It follows its’ own rules.
Bandit survived a wound that should have been fatal. A premise that’s plausible even within our own world. These things happen. Within a setting where regeneration is a thing the notion that she grew back her lost limbs is also acceptable.
People don’t come back from the dead though. That’s been established as a very specific rule that they broke in this single instance basically because cosmic and unknowable forces were at work. “We were dead” would probably be met with at least a little skepticism.
Just because regeneration and resurrection are equally implausible to us does not make it so for the characters in this setting. Regeneration was just an improved application of an existing phenomenon. Something that might be described as “A remarkable recovery”. Resurrection was a moment in which the principle of gravity (or some similar absolute law of reality) ceased to apply.
I am surprised, ashamed, and slightly miffed that this has gone without puns for so long. I mean, there are none in the comments for this WHOLE PAGE! Get it together, people!
“But the armor, well, let’s just say Berserkerboy owes me anything he rolls on for the next few dungeons.”
“We’ll make sure to let you take it up with him… the next time he’s berzerking.” :P
She wasn’t the only one in danger of being killed by Byron during his fit; none of them knew he’d become a raging murderous machine that would kill friend and foe. She just happened to have failed her perception check, which is pretty sad considering it’s supposed to be one of her strong points as a rogue. x3
Wow, the “quote” thingy I just posted goes AWESOME with the gravatar I got! For being random, they sure do end up being good coincidental visual aids. :3
“I jus’ woke up and was fine.”
…Riiiiiiiiiight.
Carol: “One day they woke me up, so I could live forever.”
It’s such a shame the same will never happen to you.
What? That’s what happened to me. Okay, there was the whole “consume the souls of the living and lay waste to the world in the name of the Lich King” thing, but I’m working on that.
Troll’s Blood: Curing everything since forever
If we consider Harky’s extra-potent blood against Bandit’s extra-small body… No. Still wouldn’t work that way. She’s lying… but why?
…Because “I respawned” breaks the fourth wall, and that’s against the rules?
I don’t think she’s lying. I think she doesn’t know. There are forces at work here beyond our ken.
Like Shoryuken?
You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.
YOU WIN!
PERFECT!
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work if it’s really extra potent trolls blood.
Obviously troll blood in the Guilded Age universe is a panacea and in its diluted form is sold as potions for very minor injuries (papercuts, scrapes, etc). Actual trolls blood would be used to heal greater (but still minor) injuries, cuts, lesser stab wounds, blunt trauma.
Harky’s blood is concentrated troll blood that allows fixing of GAPING WOUNDS and HAVING YOUR ARMS TORN OFF. If you could then concentrate his extra potent troll blood, you have as close to immortality as possible.
Could be that the only way to effectively kill a supertroll like Harky would be to bleed him dry, burn him to death, or use some kind of disease/virus that kills off his body faster than he can heal.
Mainly it’s his gem in his belly that was enhancing his natural abilities. If his blood went on her, it would have most likely only had the normal effects, not the same effects that Harki gains from his magical enhancements.
So he’s a Treasure Troll?
Nah, he doesn’t turn to stone by the light of the sun. :3 Oh wait, that’s a Tolkien Troll. D:
All in favour of Ebola? It kills by exsanguination.
When are people ever /not/ in favor of Ebola!?
Hell, I was dying from cancer before I killed and devoured a guy who started a flame war on the internet. Now I’m fine! My doctor prescribes only the best cures!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, he’s invited me over to dinner. Wants me to bring some farva beans and a nice Chianti. Don’t know why anyone would want to eat farva beans, but the dude saved my life, so what do I care?
I know they say not to share needs for risk of disease, but what’s the rule of thumb on blood covered axes?
If a berserker comes at you with a blood-soaked axe, it is in your medical best interest to avoid sharing that blood.
Pfffft, wuss.
They have a major risk of acting as a vector for hemorrhaging and other undesirable medical conditions.
This is why modern SCA reenactors insist on covering them with a rubber first.
“…But y’were nowheres. Where were you?”
Answered yer own question, there. They were nowheres.
Yes, I think thats not exactly credible. Sounds like the bullcrap it probably is. So, if Syrn’j acts like she believes, I say either she is playing along, or the party members lean toward believing anything that keeps the status quo of their world as it is (words from bandit, or words that explain somewhat their respawning, or whatever) despite common sense. Either of those is easier to believe than Syrn’j being simple minded.
She’s suspicious but doesn’t have the ground to come up with other possibilites, so she’s kinda at an impasse. It sounds like a lie, but what IS the lie? And why? She can’t really answer those questions yet, so there’s no reason to press.
Oh sweet, I’ve got the best avatar ever.
Best knows how to make the background work for him.
The Best avatar!
I don’t know. She’s obviously alive, after all. It’s pretty hard to come up with an alternate in-world explanation.
Bandit’s explanation is weak, and Syr’nj is suspicious of it, but tentatively accepts it. Our attention is drawn to both points.
At this point, I’m inclined to think that Bandit is Carol. I’m pretty sure she’s making an effort to keep hidden the facts that she knows that she’s in an MMORPG, and that she knows that Syr’nj and company don’t know it.
That’s exactly my thoughts on the matter. She’s real world, probably Carol, and can’t offer a better in-game explanation. “I dunno” is a pretty hard excuse to break, even if it is fishy.
I find myself distracted by Bandit’s cleavage in the second panel.
Then you should really check out the fanart thread in the forum.
Oh, wait, sorry. That thread was lost in the Script Kiddy Debacle.
So whatya gotta do is do a Google Image Search for “Bandit Keynes” dedalus and scroll down a few pages. You’ll know it when you see it.
(Safe search off)
That’s “Bandit Keynes” dedalus . Stupid unclosed code.
Well, thanks. That will kill off any sexy thoughts of Bandit forever.
Speak for yourself. I see nothing wrong with that picture. Reminds me of my usual friday nights.
Dockworkers need love too!
I see what you did there. :-)
The RSS updated tonight with the previous comic. Links to this one, though.
Ok, just wanted to ask as I never read the comment section.
Everyone here already knows that bandit and Best are played by the same guy, right?
Currently up for debate as there are a few strips where they’re both seen at the same time.
There’re the alternate theories that allege Bandit is an NPC, and therefore we shouldn’t care about her (which is part of the Bandit versus Best argument), and that she is played by either Dedalus or Carol (his assistant). No-one actually knows anything, and this is all based on Bandit and Best seeming to tag-team as fifth member of the party, and Bandit wearing purple.
Damn dual boxers!
SQUARE! PRESS SQUARE! DOUBT IT AND SHE’LL CRACK!
*snerk* The facial angles are a little reminiscent of LA Noire, aren’t they.
So, wait, seriously… what?
If Bandit is controlled by Daedalus (or his secretary, though I’m not a big believer in that sub-theory), why on Earth would “Bandit” play along with the idea that respawning is unusual? …Or is this one of those “hardcore” MMOs in which you legitimately can’t respawn normally?
OTOH, if Bandit is a normal NPC, then why would she revive? Harki’s blood being that strong is such an odd and unsatisfying explanation. Could she be alive simply because up to 4 of the 5 people shaping the world wanted her to be, and the world looked for some thin justification to allow it? Gah, this is a mind screw.
Perhaps whoever is her player dislikes breaking the fourth wall for some reason? Perhaps he/she is afraid that the players could get a bit mad if they found out that their created memories are just that and that alone?
Because the five don’t know that they’re in an MMO, that’s why. And, as I’ve said before, they’re likely tucked into their own private test server, so that Arag0rn_teh_Mighty can’t ruin what they’re trying to do.
Wait, which question was that “because” an answer to?
It doesn’t really fit as an explanation to any of them.
“If Bandit is controlled by Daedalus (or his secretary, though I’m not a big believer in that sub-theory), why on Earth would “Bandit” play along with the idea that respawning is unusual?”
Because the five don’t know they’re in an MMO. Returning from the dead should be unusual, even in most fantasy MMOs people don’t acknowledge just returning from the dead as something that happens every fifteen minutes.
I’ve played on two MMORPGs where many of the roleplayers did treat returning from the dead as a frequent occurrence. In Asheron’s Call, I don’t think the game developers anticipated it; roleplayers generally treated the process with suspicion, as if there was some subtle corrupting influence in the process. In EVE Online, it was more emphatically understood as part of a profound alienation the player characters experienced.
In both cases, it was played out that returning from the dead was dehumanizing, that coming back each time meant you were less human. In EVE Online, in particular, the roleplayers had the sense that player characters rapidly became inhuman monsters — making it very difficult to roleplay in a satisfying way.
Difference is, that’s the roleplaying crowd. Not the NPCs themselves.
But…but everybody who plays EVE Online for long enough becomes an inhuman monster.
NPCs respawn all the time in MMOs though
Normal NPCs don’t act like they were ever dead. It’s like the event never happened.
I think it would actually make more sense for Bandit to play along if she’s really Dedalus or Carol. They’re the only ones who know the true nature of the adventuring party’s real life counterparts. I don’t think they’d just go shattering their worldview.
Bandit could be Best’s alternate character. I mean, have we seen them together in the same scene?
Yes. Three times.
Mr John Sir… Did you mean to leave the last panel with a yellow background?
Yeah, I was wondering about that – is it supposed to represent Syr’nj’s shock or something?
Why’d she lie? I suppose saying, “We died and got rezzed by Tombdirt!” is too abrupt?
Her back is to the fireplace.
That’s just some warm lamp light coming from the hallway behind Syr’Nj. Probably should’ve put a few wooden beams back there or something. It IS sort of a close-up shot, and the hallway was shown on the previous page, so… oh well.
Yeah, what he said.
Ah yes, I see. A beam would have helped me there :)
Bandit: I got a nine in playin’ dead!
Syr’nj: *Sigh*
Her lucky rabbits foot blocked the axes and when she woke up she assumed it was troll blood, well the rabbits’ foot and the bottle of Heinz ketchup she had stuffed down her jumper…
She was so paralysed with shock at the sight of all that ketchup that she passed her play dead roll until she could sneak off of course those trollkin that spotted her assumed she was a ghost or a ghoul infected with battle madness and decided to take the rest of the night off and drink themselves senseless…
Yeeeaaah, that’s what happened… That’s the ticket!
Nah I’m pretty sure it’s a plot point. You know maybe they resurrected her and are controlling her actions? Or maybe she multi classed? Pointless conjecture aside I’m sure that it is in fact important.
I wonder if there’s a RP filter in place. You talk about something RL or in Leet and it translates it to something more appropriate. I used Eloquence on WoW for a while and it did something similar. A filter would translate a lot of Frigg’s comments and could logically make ‘I just rez’d’ into something like ‘A force beyond my ken brought me back.’
Or she’s playing along with the immersion.
If we had never found out about Sepia World, there would be mystery and tension. Now it’s just “Meh, a mod did it.”
I’m sure there’s supposed to be some good reason why we have been shown the action backstage in the middle of the play, but for now it’s acting like a huge momentum deadener and mood-killer. It’s like if you were watching Star Wars, and you saw several “dead” Stormtroopers get up, wander off-stage, and take a smoke break.
I may be gasping with delight later when the Big Reveal comes along and shows how it all fits together like a Chinese box, but for now, I’m relying on the quirky characters and fun banter to see me through. That, and the hope that Best is really gone for good.
I predict at least one of those hopes will be crushed. :P
Just realized there is only one hope mentioned in your post, I kinda extended the notion to your entire line of thought. I’ve no idea if you know what I mean but this is what you get without an edit/delete comment option.
The half-drunken ravings of a Picard wannabie.
I’m also a correct spelling *wannabe.
You are?
Nah. Its totally fine. You’re just an insufferable whiner.
I honestly think bandit is probably an npc made by Daedalus and i wonder if she can tell that Syr’Nj is lying
Troll’s blood might be good for minor injuries, but it doesn’t heal temporary-lack-of-eyes-disease.
Now I said it, you CAN’T UNSEE IT. Can you?
Da-Da DAAAA you’ve earned an achievement “can’t be unseen”
Hey, John let Slenderman draw that scene, don’t be cruel about it. You’ll hurt his feelings, the poor Eldritch Abomination.
Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?
ZaLGo, hE cOMEs . . . bUt sLoWLy anD CAreFulLy bECaUse hE cAN’t sEE.
What Byron’s axes taketh, they can also giveth away.
I find it odd that everyone jumps to the conclusion that it must be a player respawning or a ‘game master’ intervening that has Bandit back, or even that Bandit is making things up. Sure those are possibilities. Also possible is that some in-game force caused her to survive, she honestly doesn’t know what it is, and is grasping at straws. The true nature of her return will probably be important in any of these cases.
Also, I find the imprisonment line odd. Why not tell the truth? All I can think of is that she doesn’t trust bandit, possibly due to suspicion that Bandit is lying? Weird.
Syrnj is lying because they came back from the dead. That’s not something that happens. It’s crazy talk. You don’t just go telling people that you were dead and came back.
If for no other reason than that then people keep asking you to rez them, and then you never get a quiet moment again
Didn’t anyone ever tell Gravedust? If you don’t bring enough resurrection for everyone, don’t bring any at all.
No you tell them you were mostly dead.
Or you felt a really strong need to “blaive”.
Not unless you want them throwing rotten fruit at you and /spitting on you in the street. For starters.
“Yeah I was trisected but some trollsblood got in the wound and thats probably how I survived having my arms hacked off. Sounds plausible anyway”
“Okay cool. We were dead, it seems our mystic healer had a get-out-of-death-free card, one time thing”
“NO WAY! You’re lying!”
Seems to me in a world such as the one we’ve seen so far, coming back from the dead might be taken a little better than it would be in reality.
Even in their world there’s things that are possible and things that are not. It follows its’ own rules.
Bandit survived a wound that should have been fatal. A premise that’s plausible even within our own world. These things happen. Within a setting where regeneration is a thing the notion that she grew back her lost limbs is also acceptable.
People don’t come back from the dead though. That’s been established as a very specific rule that they broke in this single instance basically because cosmic and unknowable forces were at work. “We were dead” would probably be met with at least a little skepticism.
Just because regeneration and resurrection are equally implausible to us does not make it so for the characters in this setting. Regeneration was just an improved application of an existing phenomenon. Something that might be described as “A remarkable recovery”. Resurrection was a moment in which the principle of gravity (or some similar absolute law of reality) ceased to apply.
Tiny problem on the archive page… The thumbnail is that of the last page of last chapter.
It is the avatar of the president of the gaming corp.
dun-dun…..;-P
I am surprised, ashamed, and slightly miffed that this has gone without puns for so long. I mean, there are none in the comments for this WHOLE PAGE! Get it together, people!