Annotated 36-16
I’ll throw a little love to E-Merl in panel 1, doing his best to get in a Columbo-style “one more question” into his interrogation. Those pursed lips.
Sadly, this is the last real “moment” Astoria Troy gets, so you might enjoy reviewing the notes on her from a few chapters back. A bit strange that she doesn’t use her light-enhanced punch on this guy here: maybe she needs a little time to build up to it, or maybe she thought he honestly wasn’t worth expending the effort.
The mob is hardly defeated, but they are taken aback by how casual E-Merl and Astoria are about their threat level, so a little banter here is probably good tactics.
“Where’s the cultist?” Apparently the whole town
Can anyone explain to me how Lectus tricked them? I thought that lamp lightened up when a ile was told ( and it got confirmed in the epilogue I think), so could he control the lamp?
I looked back on this, and they were never asking (on panel) if anyone was in league with or related to the cultists. They were asking if the person in question had relation to a specific death. Had they been asking if people were members of the death cult… well, they probably would have started questioning the usefulness of the lantern rather than assume right out that EVERYONE was in on it.
Yes, by leading off with “There’s been a murder!” Lectrus tricked them into thinking they were there to investigate a murder mystery, rather than to be delayed while the cult got ready to slaughter them all.
Let’s not forget that it was Lectrus that told them how it worked. It’s not too much of a stretch to say he may have not told them the whole (if any) truth.
I CAST FIST