Well, don’t overlook the part where he says, “There is no land you can take that we will not reclaim!” Now put him in a kilt, paint him blue, and call him William Wallace and–Bam!–He’s tearing down a stronghold built on Scottish land. Freedom Fighter.
Seriously. It fuckin’ works. Byron is now an oppressive English Lord in a strange alternate universe.
Yes but again thats humans fighting humans..and while they had horrible things..Gastonia hasen’t shown violating ladies. Hell the Scotsmen in this case have cannibals, genociders, and worshippers of a very close to total destruction god.
If the rebels win, you think they’d just “kay now you live in the desert or wholesale slaughter?
That and Penk / William Wallace had his first combat kill…an old unarmed librarian..very heroic
The fact that you think “thats humans fighting humans” matters would seem to indicate that there is little the World’s Rebellion could do that would not give you an “evil villan vibe.”
Well they are supposed to be the antagonists of the story. Otherwise this whole comic would have focused on Champions instead of the Peacekeepers. While the Champions have enough sympathetic backstory to stop them from being black and white Chaotic Evil monsters, at the end of the day we are expected to want one side to pull through. Subtle differences are needed to steer this.
Actually, I expect that some outside force will bring them all together – say, the knowledge that they are all being manipulated for the entertainment of otherworldly beings, and they could, otherwise, get along.
I really really hope that is not the case.They did that in WoW..and the story suffered greatly for it. Sometimes just gotta have good and bad guys. I mean “Oh all that stuff we did to you guys?Forget it we gotta kill the bigger bad..then totally forgive us” Is trite and annoying cause it happens so often now
Not often enough in the real world. As in storytelling: You may be right. I would still welcome it – if only because I like a lot of the characters on both sides.
Well IRL that’d be great but as people the Peacekeepers over Rebels in terms of good/bad spectrum
For the Peacekeepers, the worst people is Frigg, but she’s just violent/douche but not overall evil. Byron has the beserker thing, but thats involuntary/magical?
Goblaurence is neutral, but amoral. He saw Orcs being slaves and only cared about efficeny, not helping them. I think the Peaceekeepers saw similar, least outrage.
Penk killed a civilan and is giving alot of evil monologue and worships a destructive god.
Hammerhead is also amoral/ culture and just slaughtered his own people when he was introduced.
Fuzzy guy attacks injured people and seems self righteous even though his actions aren’t.
Magda nicest person , and the avian dude is..quiet.So if we took it they were okay, but the rest have more flaws.
Bandit is a cleptomaniac..thats it for flaws I can see really
It’s interesting that your answer is on a different level than Tatsu’s statement or at least seems to be for me: While he describes the characters you write about the storytelling.
That speech would be a bit more intimidating if the Champions didn’t seem like they were on the losing end for pretty much the entire fight.
I mean, I’m sure he’ll back it up eventually, but it just seems like the kind of speech that’s better spoken over the broken bodies and spirits of those who oppose you.
Well, I suppose that’s what happens when you have one of the champions entirely focused on non-combat and all of the peacemakers fighting directly… and/or off wandering around in cultist caves.
Yeah, it really is worth mentioning that this isn’t even half the Peacemakers’ team. Remember, Byron is head of the Adventurers’ guild, now. They’re short a few officers AND an entire guild in this fight.
The losing side? Not one Champion was knocked out of the fight – the worst that’s happened to them is that one’s run out of juice for extra magicking. Meanwhile, the Peacekeepers have one tank with a flame-broiled foot, two with broke arms, their leader’s awash in third degree burns, and they just scored a massive victory in the open battlefield.
…And they still have enough people to fight the Champions more or less equally. Rachel alone was giving Penk and Magda trouble. Auraugu got his ass handed to him in every fight he started except against Ardaic, including the time he went up against someone that, IIRC, we weren’t even aware could fight. If HAMMERHEAD didn’t obviously have some sort of healing factor he’d be bleeding out right about now.
Magda is the only one with any kind of clear successes to her name and she’s out of spells. That is not a recipe for success by any stretch of the imagination.
What’s also relevant is Rachel drew her sword, why would she do that if she still had some more-effective glowing limb action left? Penk was near fully recovered too.
Also 3 of the peacekeepers were about to charge head first against a giant Wolverine with no speed+ and with one-armed Skips having to worry about his lover dying a few feet away and (possibly) no-glow Rachel still worrying about Frigg senpai. Not positive because of hero deus ex power, but I bet the peacekeepers needed to avoid that fight much more than the champs.
Also there’s a sniper in the air that the peacekeepers don’t know about.
The million gold question: who’s Rana gonna target with his Bullseye aim now that the other airship is cloaked??
I didn’t say “shoot” for a reason. His absurd aim applies to fast dives as well.
Remember when he was first introduced and swooped down insanely fast to nab a full sized unsuspecting sheep with just his beak (and apparently insanely strong neck muscles)?
It’s like the unexpected claw grab Yalaria pulled on Rachel, except this time by a bird soldier with much more strength and skill…and over LAND instead.
Also Rana keeps arrows on his belt even though he has nothing to fire them with. Instead he can just let one go carefully during a fast dive, pull out, and the arrow will hit with about the same velocity as if launched from a bow. Or he can just drop something heavy on them if they don’t see it coming.
Yeah, Bandit’s great and all and Syr is alright, but Byron’s always been the better leader. Aside from all the team-killing, but he’s cured of that now. Mostly.
You do realise that the only reason they’re still standing is because Bandit is leading the hell out of this team. She’s the one who was spotting every coming danger and making sure that everybody was where they needed to be to face it. Byron is a good figurehead, but Bandit is the right one to lead.
This. Byron is a great diplomat and morale counselor, but Syr and Bandit are the tactical leaders. Syr shines in pre-combat prep while Bandit’s forte is mid-battle strategic adjustments.
Also ballistics. Goblaurence may have told the birds where to aim at based on what would more likely cause the ship to crash in that general direction (since for many areas a direct hit destroys the ship anyway) OR Rana might be good enough at guessing trajectories under pressure to do so himself.
Perhaps, the situation would likely favor them since the peacekeepers have 2 immobilized injured to try and evacuate and only one small member with enhanced speed; meanwhile all champs are fully mobile and HAMMERHEAD can likely run at escape-cart speed while carrying the others if needed. So the champs are the only ones who could afford a quick skirmish to try and immobilize another peacekeeper (almost as good as dead in this situation). But it’s never complete folly to retreat TEMPORARILY when tons of burning ship wreckage are about to do a lot of the work for you.
Rather the inexcusably moronic tactical blunder here would be NOT staying on the periphery of the burning fort for at least a few hours to finish off escapees.
“Rather the inexcusably moronic tactical blunder here would be NOT staying on the periphery of the burning fort for at least a few hours to finish off escapees”
Agreed. Sticking around in the short term doesn’t seem worth the risk, but there’s no sense in a full retreat.
Assuming this attack/raid is a strategic win for the World’s Rebellion, you can expect their forces to be majorly advancing on this area once the flames have burnt out. After all, there’s a damaged but functional fort they can claim there.
Agree with da shark. You’ve just KOed all of the air support, scoring a major morale victory. Now is the time to overwhelm what remains of their defenses and scatter your foe to the winds.
As is, were I commanding the Peacekeepers I’d have them harrying the flanks of the retreating foe as they’re making what appears to be a disorganized retreat.
HA! I just noticed the 3-line angry face on the ball of Penk’s fiery drum stick. So I looked back and realized it’s always been there and the expression on it actually changes depending on the situation! It’s either a mood stick or an awesome familiar. I hope it gets a name now.
I think that’s the cool effect going on. Peacekeepers see a self-righteous bard-avatar, who both Syr and Frigg have acknowledged as a legit warrior. But readers know that underneathe all the godfire and rhetoric is just a drummer boy dweeb in way over his head.
So… Hammerhead has Wolverine’s healing powers or something? He was chopped to hamburger, and now he’s just fine? Seriously, he should be ready to go… and missing a limb or two, from all of those hits. He’s the last one who should be ready to keep going.
The hacks and slashes were made at super speed, but D&D physics means that that doesn’t increase their damage. They didn’t penetrate very deep into his super tough shark flesh. He isn’t as much hacked to heck, as he is nicked all over.
I guess a lot of people here don’t understand just how tough regular shark skin is, let alone when its on a gigantic, ridiculously muscled, fantasy shark-monster-person hybrid.
Though also what is important to understand is exactly how fighting with bladed weapons works. Slicing up someone’s outer layer of skin is painful and all, but without hitting one of a few vital areas near the surface, even the blood loss from it is not something that requires urgent attention. Obviously, that’s more related to knife fighting (not sword and hand-axe), but that’s also when we’re talking human vs human. Factor in what are certainly racial bonuses for natural armor on regular landsharks, multiplied by HAMMERHEAD’s freakish size. Possibly even divide it by typical fantasy rules of speed buffs reducing power, but even without that, it’s probably about as effective as wildly slashing at another person with a pocket knife.
Actual sharks heal from external wounds remarkably quickly, more specifically their bodies replace damaged tissue at an incredible rate. The example many of us know would be the fast regrowth rate of their teeth, but it applies to FLESH WOUNDS as well. For more info this is a decent start.
In case anyone cares, the reason sharks evolved this amazing ability is because of how frequently they would collide with sharp coral reefs and other jagged rock surfaces while chasing prey at very high speeds.
He’s performing a monologue with his eyes shut. That’s just begging for a sucker punch.
Seriously. One good throw from Byron to his exposed midriff and that would be one hell of a morale booster for the Gastonian side.
Trolls regenerate, remember?
right, but even penk can only regen so fast after the fire’s eye gem is smashed.
at first I thought you were suggesting he throw Bandit. Also effective, I’m sure :)
You forget the most important rule of roleplaying.
Talking is a free action.
But the villain rule. Villains always start a monologue right before their demise or epic transition to victory for the Heroes!
I’d be more worried if Penk did not start a 15 minute monologue with his eyes shut… then we’d really be screwed.
Seriously the more I hear from the Rebels, way way more evil villan vibe
Well, don’t overlook the part where he says, “There is no land you can take that we will not reclaim!” Now put him in a kilt, paint him blue, and call him William Wallace and–Bam!–He’s tearing down a stronghold built on Scottish land. Freedom Fighter.
Seriously. It fuckin’ works. Byron is now an oppressive English Lord in a strange alternate universe.
Yes but again thats humans fighting humans..and while they had horrible things..Gastonia hasen’t shown violating ladies. Hell the Scotsmen in this case have cannibals, genociders, and worshippers of a very close to total destruction god.
If the rebels win, you think they’d just “kay now you live in the desert or wholesale slaughter?
That and Penk / William Wallace had his first combat kill…an old unarmed librarian..very heroic
The fact that you think “thats humans fighting humans” matters would seem to indicate that there is little the World’s Rebellion could do that would not give you an “evil villan vibe.”
Very much this.
Well they are supposed to be the antagonists of the story. Otherwise this whole comic would have focused on Champions instead of the Peacekeepers. While the Champions have enough sympathetic backstory to stop them from being black and white Chaotic Evil monsters, at the end of the day we are expected to want one side to pull through. Subtle differences are needed to steer this.
Actually, I expect that some outside force will bring them all together – say, the knowledge that they are all being manipulated for the entertainment of otherworldly beings, and they could, otherwise, get along.
But we’ll see.
I really really hope that is not the case.They did that in WoW..and the story suffered greatly for it. Sometimes just gotta have good and bad guys. I mean “Oh all that stuff we did to you guys?Forget it we gotta kill the bigger bad..then totally forgive us” Is trite and annoying cause it happens so often now
Not often enough in the real world. As in storytelling: You may be right. I would still welcome it – if only because I like a lot of the characters on both sides.
Well IRL that’d be great but as people the Peacekeepers over Rebels in terms of good/bad spectrum
For the Peacekeepers, the worst people is Frigg, but she’s just violent/douche but not overall evil. Byron has the beserker thing, but thats involuntary/magical?
Goblaurence is neutral, but amoral. He saw Orcs being slaves and only cared about efficeny, not helping them. I think the Peaceekeepers saw similar, least outrage.
Penk killed a civilan and is giving alot of evil monologue and worships a destructive god.
Hammerhead is also amoral/ culture and just slaughtered his own people when he was introduced.
Fuzzy guy attacks injured people and seems self righteous even though his actions aren’t.
Magda nicest person , and the avian dude is..quiet.So if we took it they were okay, but the rest have more flaws.
Bandit is a cleptomaniac..thats it for flaws I can see really
It’s interesting that your answer is on a different level than Tatsu’s statement or at least seems to be for me: While he describes the characters you write about the storytelling.
Oh Burn!
I think Magda still has him beat in that respect XD
That speech would be a bit more intimidating if the Champions didn’t seem like they were on the losing end for pretty much the entire fight.
I mean, I’m sure he’ll back it up eventually, but it just seems like the kind of speech that’s better spoken over the broken bodies and spirits of those who oppose you.
You lousy lucky peacemakers! Why, if it weren’t for that falling firebomb, we woulda won! One of these days, dudes, one o’ these days … BANG! ZOOM!
Right in the kisser!
Dang, straight to the moon would have worked so much better with Iron E-merl there.
Well, I suppose that’s what happens when you have one of the champions entirely focused on non-combat and all of the peacemakers fighting directly… and/or off wandering around in cultist caves.
Yeah, it really is worth mentioning that this isn’t even half the Peacemakers’ team. Remember, Byron is head of the Adventurers’ guild, now. They’re short a few officers AND an entire guild in this fight.
The losing side? Not one Champion was knocked out of the fight – the worst that’s happened to them is that one’s run out of juice for extra magicking. Meanwhile, the Peacekeepers have one tank with a flame-broiled foot, two with broke arms, their leader’s awash in third degree burns, and they just scored a massive victory in the open battlefield.
…And they still have enough people to fight the Champions more or less equally. Rachel alone was giving Penk and Magda trouble. Auraugu got his ass handed to him in every fight he started except against Ardaic, including the time he went up against someone that, IIRC, we weren’t even aware could fight. If HAMMERHEAD didn’t obviously have some sort of healing factor he’d be bleeding out right about now.
Magda is the only one with any kind of clear successes to her name and she’s out of spells. That is not a recipe for success by any stretch of the imagination.
What’s also relevant is Rachel drew her sword, why would she do that if she still had some more-effective glowing limb action left? Penk was near fully recovered too.
Also 3 of the peacekeepers were about to charge head first against a giant Wolverine with no speed+ and with one-armed Skips having to worry about his lover dying a few feet away and (possibly) no-glow Rachel still worrying about Frigg senpai. Not positive because of hero deus ex power, but I bet the peacekeepers needed to avoid that fight much more than the champs.
Also there’s a sniper in the air that the peacekeepers don’t know about.
The million gold question: who’s Rana gonna target with his Bullseye aim now that the other airship is cloaked??
What is birdbrain going to shoot with? His arse?
*cloaca
FTFY
I didn’t say “shoot” for a reason. His absurd aim applies to fast dives as well.
Remember when he was first introduced and swooped down insanely fast to nab a full sized unsuspecting sheep with just his beak (and apparently insanely strong neck muscles)?
It’s like the unexpected claw grab Yalaria pulled on Rachel, except this time by a bird soldier with much more strength and skill…and over LAND instead.
Also Rana keeps arrows on his belt even though he has nothing to fire them with. Instead he can just let one go carefully during a fast dive, pull out, and the arrow will hit with about the same velocity as if launched from a bow. Or he can just drop something heavy on them if they don’t see it coming.
REPENT, YOU SINNERS! THE HOUR OF JUDGEMENT IS AT HAND!
Who’s hand? My hand?
I think Penk is wisely taking the chance to call it off. It could go either way, but the cost would be higher than he’s ready for.
Good discipline, Byron. Keep your eye on the enemy.
I like the fact that only Byron is staring the guy down. Seriously, Byron needs to lead again.
He just needs some axe shinguards to bolster his self-confidence.
Yeah, Bandit’s great and all and Syr is alright, but Byron’s always been the better leader. Aside from all the team-killing, but he’s cured of that now. Mostly.
Yeah, does anyone remember back when Byron was leader and the Peacekeepers actually won sometimes?
What’s really amusing is that the full pattern is “Peacekeepers win, though Byron himself gets punk’d.”
To be far, we can’t tell where Bandit is looking in this page.
*fair
You do realise that the only reason they’re still standing is because Bandit is leading the hell out of this team. She’s the one who was spotting every coming danger and making sure that everybody was where they needed to be to face it. Byron is a good figurehead, but Bandit is the right one to lead.
This. Byron is a great diplomat and morale counselor, but Syr and Bandit are the tactical leaders. Syr shines in pre-combat prep while Bandit’s forte is mid-battle strategic adjustments.
*sigh*I miss the old Penk…
I am sure he is still in there somewhere. But a near death experience/leap of faith can change a person.
Me too. :-/
I’m disappointed his parting words to the Peacemakers aren’t in rhyming iambic pentameter.
Penk as Etrigan?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
BTW, Kirby ruled (art-wise)!
Maybe it rhymes in the troll language?
Hammerhead is right. The destruction of the airship should be a signal to attack, not retreat.
Except the airship is about to land ON them.
… and probably explode.
It looks that way, but really, why on earth would it land on them? It was bombing the invading troops, it wasn’t hovering right above the fort.
Convenience.
Momentum. The airships were not hovering.
Also ballistics. Goblaurence may have told the birds where to aim at based on what would more likely cause the ship to crash in that general direction (since for many areas a direct hit destroys the ship anyway) OR Rana might be good enough at guessing trajectories under pressure to do so himself.
Perhaps, the situation would likely favor them since the peacekeepers have 2 immobilized injured to try and evacuate and only one small member with enhanced speed; meanwhile all champs are fully mobile and HAMMERHEAD can likely run at escape-cart speed while carrying the others if needed. So the champs are the only ones who could afford a quick skirmish to try and immobilize another peacekeeper (almost as good as dead in this situation). But it’s never complete folly to retreat TEMPORARILY when tons of burning ship wreckage are about to do a lot of the work for you.
Rather the inexcusably moronic tactical blunder here would be NOT staying on the periphery of the burning fort for at least a few hours to finish off escapees.
“Rather the inexcusably moronic tactical blunder here would be NOT staying on the periphery of the burning fort for at least a few hours to finish off escapees”
Agreed. Sticking around in the short term doesn’t seem worth the risk, but there’s no sense in a full retreat.
Assuming this attack/raid is a strategic win for the World’s Rebellion, you can expect their forces to be majorly advancing on this area once the flames have burnt out. After all, there’s a damaged but functional fort they can claim there.
Agree with da shark. You’ve just KOed all of the air support, scoring a major morale victory. Now is the time to overwhelm what remains of their defenses and scatter your foe to the winds.
As is, were I commanding the Peacekeepers I’d have them harrying the flanks of the retreating foe as they’re making what appears to be a disorganized retreat.
MY GOOOOOOD
IS A FIERY VENGEFULLLL GOOOOOOOD
I think I’ve heard that hymn in Sunday school once!
‘zactly. He sounds like an old “hellfire and brimstone” preacher.
That’s what you preach when your god is a animate volcano-thing. The new testament and “all shall be forgiven” doesn’t really cut it.
… sang to the tune of “I will always love you”, by Whitney Houston.
Russian Armour guy from chapter 5 page 9 hasn’t shown up again and it’s been, like, 25 chapters
“Russian Armour Guy” (AKA Priestlord Gigundus) showed up again and was defeated in the very next chapter.
Wait… The hollow man was one of gaston’s ruling council?
Mind = blown.
I don’t know how I missed that.
…
HA! I just noticed the 3-line angry face on the ball of Penk’s fiery drum stick. So I looked back and realized it’s always been there and the expression on it actually changes depending on the situation! It’s either a mood stick or an awesome familiar. I hope it gets a name now.
Frigg’s pauldron/Penk’s drumstick OTP
Is it just me, or is Penk just not as cool anymore? I think, he has still trouble filling his larger-than-life character…
When was he ever? He went from being a loser dweeb, to a loser prick with an Avatar-complex
Agreed, but as a “loser dweeb” he was *far* more likeable and relateable.
I think that’s the cool effect going on. Peacekeepers see a self-righteous bard-avatar, who both Syr and Frigg have acknowledged as a legit warrior. But readers know that underneathe all the godfire and rhetoric is just a drummer boy dweeb in way over his head.
KILL, he told me
pa-rum-pa-pum-pum…
A new born GOD to see
Pa rum pa pum pum
“Take my words to heart, champions, for we will be back, and you wiSPLAT”
GET TO DE CHOPPA!
You mean the axe-tanks?
Damnit, Fr’Nj! ROOT THEM! QUICK!!!
That’s a fairly good Parthian shot, considering he doesn’t have a horse or a bow.
So… Hammerhead has Wolverine’s healing powers or something? He was chopped to hamburger, and now he’s just fine? Seriously, he should be ready to go… and missing a limb or two, from all of those hits. He’s the last one who should be ready to keep going.
I concurr. I really don’t understand, how he could’ve survived all that slashing and hacking.
The hacks and slashes were made at super speed, but D&D physics means that that doesn’t increase their damage. They didn’t penetrate very deep into his super tough shark flesh. He isn’t as much hacked to heck, as he is nicked all over.
Those red things aren’t wounds, they are tattooed on. He isn’t even bleeding from all that hacking anymore.
I guess a lot of people here don’t understand just how tough regular shark skin is, let alone when its on a gigantic, ridiculously muscled, fantasy shark-monster-person hybrid.
Though also what is important to understand is exactly how fighting with bladed weapons works. Slicing up someone’s outer layer of skin is painful and all, but without hitting one of a few vital areas near the surface, even the blood loss from it is not something that requires urgent attention. Obviously, that’s more related to knife fighting (not sword and hand-axe), but that’s also when we’re talking human vs human. Factor in what are certainly racial bonuses for natural armor on regular landsharks, multiplied by HAMMERHEAD’s freakish size. Possibly even divide it by typical fantasy rules of speed buffs reducing power, but even without that, it’s probably about as effective as wildly slashing at another person with a pocket knife.
Actual sharks heal from external wounds remarkably quickly, more specifically their bodies replace damaged tissue at an incredible rate. The example many of us know would be the fast regrowth rate of their teeth, but it applies to FLESH WOUNDS as well. For more info this is a decent start.
http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/p_wound.htm
Yeah, if the actual animal has pseudo healing factor and berserker mode, then fantasy world spinach makes HAMMERHEAD a giant wolverine.
In case anyone cares, the reason sharks evolved this amazing ability is because of how frequently they would collide with sharp coral reefs and other jagged rock surfaces while chasing prey at very high speeds.
“Goblaurence Out!”
*MACE DROP!*
What they need….is the Phoenix Force! Would shut everyone up.
“Rachel, could you fucking NOT… try to drag me to safety by my broken arm?”