Chapter 24 – Page 5
Apologies for the late update, Guildies, we’ve got our hands full managing the FRIGGSTARTER and are already overwhelmed with not only the work around it, but the support we’ve been given! We’re already reached 27.41% of the goal in the first 24 hours, with one walk-on and one speaking-role reward each claimed! Holy crap in a hat! Thanks so much for getting the ball rolling, guys!
In case you haven’t seen it yet, Go see look look at the thing we made it for you and you’ve been patient so now go look at the thing yay yay hooray
Aw nuts. I didn’t think this could be Ardaic, but this guy is pragmatic and now I have doubts.
My thoughts exactly. I didn’t think Ardaic at first, but the more I hear him, the more he sounds like it.
but when did ardaic have powers like that?
When did we not have powers like that?
I mean, just because we haven’t seen him use them ever doesn’t mean he didn’t.
Nah, it’s not Ardaic. The guy lacks sufficient self. Ardaic has a job, but he doesn’t actually talk about himself like he’s a mere tool of the kingdom. He wouldn’t answer a question about what he’s going to do with “Gastonia does _____”.
This guy also talks about Gastonia like it’s an abstract concept and higher authority where Ardaic talks about Gastonia like one would talk about a maze or the city streets. It’s just what he lives in and what he has to navigate through move around.
I also don’t think Ardaic’s ever put a mission’s requirements in terms of honor. He’d tell you why it might be bad PR to kill a child but he doesn’t seem the type to care about who does or does not possess a child’s smile.
That was Mama Bear who talked about the smile
Yes, I think that’s what gangler meant.
I also think it isn’t Ardaic, even with Phils tag-mixup yesterday.
And besides, a couple of pages back this guy appeared to have blue eyes. Ardaic’s eyes are brown. Go see.
Went back to double check. Go back 3 pages. His eyes are kinda blue steel-ish.
Should the alt-text say “fascism” or is it a pun I’m not getting?
Nope I am just delirious.
He also had a child’s smile, whilst selling children.
“There’s nothing more cruel than a child.”
If anything children are probably the most inclined to sell children. Unlike adults they don’t view other children as somehow special or sacrosanct, so it would seem no worse than any other kind of human trafficking. They lack a developed moral compass. They lack the foresight to realize how the selling of children could come back to bite them in the long term.
Tell me you don’t have a sibling who wouldn’t have sold you to the circus on a bad day.
Oh hell, as a kid I thought kidnappers stole children to perform lab experiments on. I might’ve sold my brother thinking he’d thank me when he came back with superpowers. Kids are hella ignorant.
A bad day? I’d have sold my brother on an average day. Probably even on a moderately good day.
Then again, even as an adult I kind of stand by that since he was so awful back then, so maybe I’m a special case.
That was apparently before this flashback, so she either didn’t know or has some strong wishful thinking.
Regardless of the sequence of events, the implication is that Sundar would have been one of those adventurers dead by starvation if he wasn’t taking the nasty jobs. That’s part of the reason Fightopia exists.
I legit had not put that together. You’d think Byron would’ve been less judgmental over that. Though then again I suppose it’s probably easiest for somebody like Byron to get judgmental on a subject like this. He can think back to all the hungry nights when he didn’t have the money to make ends meet. He remembers any seedy jobs he took on during rough times and knows he never had to carry a sack of children to any employers.
That’s the moral grey area. Byron may never have sold kids to slavers, but things are going really well for him. He is the 1% of adventurers.
What got him pissed though was when Sundar claimed to be living up to this Brunhilde’s ideals. From what we’ve seen, she is practically a sacred figure to adventurers, and she doesn’t seem to be the type to accept selling children under any circumstances. That Sundar claimed he was living up to her seemed to Byron to be a massive case of hypocrisy.
He is now. He wasn’t for a very long time. That’s what I’m saying. Before he had this cushy government job he was in Sundar’s position for pretty much his entire life. We don’t actually know what the battleshires did when they were around, but he was a small child when that ended and with the Berserker’s curse he wasn’t left with much for options outside of lending his axe for hire.
So, small child going straight to, what, about a year ago, however long it’s been since he got hooked up with this gig, exact same situation as Sundar. Having trouble making ends meet during peace time. Having trouble living through wartime.
Heck, at the time of the incident with Sundar it would’ve been mere days or months since we met him, turning in those bounties, getting shafted with half of what was initially offered because some wizard had screwed with supply and demand.
That’s why he’s the guy in the group who understands. The rest of them just came into the adventuring business at this point in the process, the really comfortable point. Byron was always an adventurer.
I like MILFs and I like badass amazonian women, so I’m pretty hot for Brunhilde.
Hold on just a minute…
1) I’m not sure she actually has any children
2) She’s more Celtic than Amazonian
3) I completely agree
1) She has surrogate sons. All adventurers are her children, or something.
2) Amazonian used here as an adjective, rather than a proper noun.
3) Huzzah!
Especially if they walk around bear-arsed like she does, amiright?
Ursa making me groan with these puns….
he’s just a Minor, forgive his Major Constellation of puns:)
Instead of suffering here, click back a page or two. There are some fine kodiak moments.
All dat butt is almost too much to bear, but if I must die then I accept my grizzly fate.
Silver Centurion puts me in mind of one of the bosses in Kingdom Hearts 2. (can’t remember which)
“Defeat the mysterious enemy!”
I believe that’s the first Nobody you run into.
It takes a really nasty villain to turn mercy into cruelty.
That looks like the most common mistake of any villain, sparing the “One Guy” thinking he will learn his lesson and not do something “Stupid”. How many times has this been done and it back fired? I do not think I have enough fingers.
he’s working well outside the overlord guidelines here. see points 13, 38 and 75 ;D
He’s also breaking the one about carrying a sidearm. He’s relying on his Smite powers entirely with no backup weapon.
Yeah… I’d say it’s not an overlord.
Hmmm, where would he be in the hierarchy then? Higher Grade Henchman? Anti-Hero?
I like “Higher Grade Henchman”!
I’d guess it’s not an overlord, because he is only acting agent for Arkerra. (Even getting his powers from his belief in Arkerra.) So he could be a level endboss, but not an overlord.
I’ve read all these strips from the beginning. If there is anything good about Gastonia I have yet to see it.
I’ve heard of shades of grey, but this is pretty much monochromatic. Everyone, the adventurers, the monster races, the elves should join up and obliterate Gastonia. There is just nothing good about it.
Part of the duality of the story. Harky’s army is being corrupted from within by greedy politicians and dark elemental gods, while the Peacemakers are working within Gastonia’s system to try and change it for the better.
What, besides all the innocent civilians living inside Gastonia? You should at least recall the gnomes. We haven’t seen much of all the civilians, which makes sense ’cause it would just be boring. It stands to reason that adventurers going on really big quests get to deal with powerful and/or corrupt people much more often than they do with average plebs. But yeah, I agree: genocide is a fantastic, long-term sustainable solution to most such problems.
Mama Bear, could you…could you maybe..chant my name…just a little?
Like so, *whispers* Sundar the Sunderer, Sundar the Sund….oh no. :/
They do not execute fools who are mislead huh? Alright I’ll give them points for that. So far it’s a -95
“The next adventurers we send to the Orcs will be less informed about our intentions for them” Oh shit, did it just hit me that those ‘next adventurers’ are most likely the Peacemakers? (on their way to Souff Koral they noticed the savages slaving Orcs, though IIRC they never freed any)
Hey I’m not sure if this has ever been mentioned before but Gastonia DOES EXIST in real life. It’s in NC. Again not sure if this has ever been mentioned before but if it has, whoops :)
He got stabbed deep in the eye, deeper than the eye itself. You know what’s behind that? Your freaking *brain*. That’s where you LIVE.
It seems a trifle absurd he should live.
Remember, this is a video game. Hit points are what matter, not vital organs.
I was trying to forget that.
I don’t think Arkerra is just a video game. The fact that Sundar isn’t dead from that actually says a lot, and not about HP and shiz. Anyway, I’m convinced Brunhilde’s max HP would be higher than Sundar’s.
No doubt this guy/gal could have instakilled Sundar that way if he wanted to. What you say makes sense, but the Centurion didn’t stab him deep in the eye. Looking at the momentum going around on that page and considering the natural head-jerk reflex I’d say there is a chance for a stab like that with an actual dagger to not penetrate that deep. However: this is a magical dagger, and I get the idea that the Silver Centurion very much intentionally gave Sundar a severe but non-lethal wound. First, that’s a twisted sort of altruism: “you got no chance, so instead of killing you outright, I’ll have mercy and just stab your eye out. Also, I know you’ll remember to tell your friends not to fuck with Gastonia’s sovereignty next time.” Second: what more effective way to taunt Mama Bear into a reckless charge? This centurion seems to have loads of experience precisely controlling the amounts of fear and anger inflicted on his opponents.
Doesn’t matter how far under the bread line you are, there are some things you neh-eh-ever do, and that is what seperates Byron from Sundar