What I’m guessing is, she’s betting that whatever was so cosmically important about them ALL being brought back from death, in contravention of all natural laws, hasn’t changed since, and that Gravedust will be allowed to bring Byron back again.
Also, I’m wagering that normal gamers CAN resurrect from death. See: Bandit. But NPCs don’t. ALSO but: The Five are something in between. Not players, but not NPCs. And because they ARE part of Arkerra, woven into its fabric in a way normal PCs aren’t, returning from death becomes something more…INVOLVED, let us say, for them.
She wants him to pull out the berzerker spirit, not Byron’s own spirit- as Gravedust says, they’re both still in there. What she’ll do with it once it’s out, I don’t know, but removing it while he’s dead might be a permanent cure if he can be brought back to life another way afterward.
Well said answer was on “Chapter 18 – Page 11” what she’s counting on? I dunno…
“Talk to the mystics and the COSMOS, and convince them to let you bring him back!” – that would be silly.
“Bring him back and loose your powers?” – that can’t be it. I mean c’mon. xD
No flippin clue.
“It was not MY decision to return us to the living.
It was the will of all mystics, and the cosmos ITSELF.
If it did so of my own volition… I, the last mystic, would then lose my power AND my duty. ”
He was also dead at that time so he was in a state that allowed him to hear the will of the mystics/cosmos/whatever who then granted this boon because they felt it was necessary.
She’s probably going to kill him, possibly in some Sciencey type way that allows him to be brought back if acted on by science quickly enough, and count on the fact that whatever it was the mystics/cosmos/whatever needed them for it still needs them for and so will send Grave and Byron back again.
Don’t know why its so silly he should talk to the mystics? Doing that silly thing earlier is why we still have a comic and he talked to one of the dead mystics (and some kind of bear god thing of Friggs) in a bonded dream/vision quest with Frigg a bit back. The cultists managed to connect with H.R. (a demi-god like power at least) and get an avatar assigned to “help” them. The Worlds Rebellion’s leaders can vision quest to communicate with Tetonicus (however that magma/earth gods name goes). Seems like chatting with the Powers That Be is a thing in this world to me. *shrugs*
So yeah she’s gonna send him off to see the mystics of Oz and he can either be nice and take the yellow brick road or she’s gonna send him to make nice with his dear and fluffy cosmos with SCIENCE!
“But hey, guess what, maybe in a few months from now he’ll come back to us in a completely different alien green body and have absolutely no memories of us! How would you like that?”
He died, went through training on another world, came back different, and saved our heroes from a nasty alien threat from the same place he now hails from.
Byron’s more like Trunks. Comes from a place where things went to shit, tried to prevent that from happening in another place, and things went to shit even worse than they originally did.
Aaaawww, that had me dreaming for a moment of an arrow that Gravedust had “cured” of Berserking Spirit that when fired at a crucial save the day moment would in flight make the odd sound HUUUUUUUAAAAAAAGGGHHH! and turn out to be heat seeking on anything living friend or foe just to thrust on through and fly after the next.
Oh well, the look on Gravedust face when she wants him dead will be fun too.
Arrow of the Berserker. Just sounds so cool. *sigh*
I’m putting it here so it doesn’t get prematurely buried (kinda like Syr’nj is hoping for Byron!), so I beg your indulgences.
-ahem-
The Working-Class Adventurer’s Lament
(to Fenlander, with thanks for the inspiration)
You could have a refined
Yet impoverished mind,
You could rule half the world and be crass.
What determines your fate
And the food on your plate
Ain’t your brains or your charm – it’s your class.
Simply going berserk
Ain’t considered paid work
Healers literally starve for their art;
Thiev’ry’s cunning and stealth
Is no pathway to wealth
If you didn’t have any to start.
Though we hack and slash for cold, hard cash
Our pockets won’t get lined –
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
Should they wish to command
Their sworn enemy’s land
They call us to take up the sword,
Sign the age-old refrain
Of glory and gain
And wax eloquently of reward.
But when peace comes at last
They enjoy their repast
Of pheasant and pudding and wine
While we’re out on the street
Lacking shoes for our feet
And we count – if we’re lucky – to nine.
We pluck vict’ry’s fruits, but end up like brutes
Just gnawing on the rind –
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
When the hour is struck
And – now run out of luck –
We depart this poor life, none the wiser
It should come as no shock
That beneath his black frock
Death ain’t nohow the Great Equalizer.
No matter your guild
When your party gets killed
In this two-tiered system, I’ve found
That even when dead
The rich get a bed
While the poor have to lie on the ground.
What chance, we proles, our wand’ring souls,
Eternal rest to find?
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
If there is a version of it on youtube you could post that.
It generally shows up as an embed if you cut and paste the whole url. There is probably some code to add to it to make it autoplay but I haven’t looked into it and would probably not only annoy everyone loading the page but maybe it would play before they got down here?
It does not load well. But I enjoyed the 10 seconds or so before it started freezing. Either need a player that loads the file while I pause it (which this does not do) or put it on youtube.
Gold stars are rare enough, but this?
You’ve gone supernova, good sir.
Makes me almost want to dust off my epic poem of the battle of the Burning Heels (that I haven’t touched in two years, sigh).
my mother used to tell me I would go blind if I kept “Coaxing out spirits” after “much meditation” she never realy approved of me “enchanting my arrow”
That seems ominous.
That it did… I wonder if Bandit’s little rant has something to do with it or if there’s an actual plan here.
Syr’Nj…has a plan!
What I’m guessing is, she’s betting that whatever was so cosmically important about them ALL being brought back from death, in contravention of all natural laws, hasn’t changed since, and that Gravedust will be allowed to bring Byron back again.
Also, I’m wagering that normal gamers CAN resurrect from death. See: Bandit. But NPCs don’t. ALSO but: The Five are something in between. Not players, but not NPCs. And because they ARE part of Arkerra, woven into its fabric in a way normal PCs aren’t, returning from death becomes something more…INVOLVED, let us say, for them.
It’ll take at least one cutscene, if not several.
Is that a threat, Syr’Nj?
She wants him to pull out the berzerker spirit, not Byron’s own spirit- as Gravedust says, they’re both still in there. What she’ll do with it once it’s out, I don’t know, but removing it while he’s dead might be a permanent cure if he can be brought back to life another way afterward.
Loose the berserker arrow at someone on Penk’s crew to resolve the rebellion issue once and for all?
Of course, you’d then get a demon-possessed savage horde issue, but hey, one problem at a time.
great minds think alike!
Sick minds twist alike!
The avatar chain on this is hilarious.
So we are following DBZ rules eh? Only one extra life per, um, life.
Doesn’t Goku, or Chiaotzu for that matter, kinda blow that rule to hell?
That rule only applies to the earth dragon balls
Obligatory “Look, Vegeta, it’s a Chiaotzu! I’m gonna catch it!”
“Aww dang-it Vegeta, he used ‘SELF-DESTRUCT’…I hate it when they do that” XD
“his power level is~… 1006.”
“WHAT?! THATS IT?”
“yea. go for it. have fun.” *inspects visor* “hrm… looks like this thing was upside down…”
Looks like Byron gets another shot after all.
He gets another shot?
*consults movie script*
is that a tomahawk arrow…?
Well said answer was on “Chapter 18 – Page 11” what she’s counting on? I dunno…
“Talk to the mystics and the COSMOS, and convince them to let you bring him back!” – that would be silly.
“Bring him back and loose your powers?” – that can’t be it. I mean c’mon. xD
No flippin clue.
“It was not MY decision to return us to the living.
It was the will of all mystics, and the cosmos ITSELF.
If it did so of my own volition… I, the last mystic, would then lose my power AND my duty. ”
He was also dead at that time so he was in a state that allowed him to hear the will of the mystics/cosmos/whatever who then granted this boon because they felt it was necessary.
She’s probably going to kill him, possibly in some Sciencey type way that allows him to be brought back if acted on by science quickly enough, and count on the fact that whatever it was the mystics/cosmos/whatever needed them for it still needs them for and so will send Grave and Byron back again.
Don’t know why its so silly he should talk to the mystics? Doing that silly thing earlier is why we still have a comic and he talked to one of the dead mystics (and some kind of bear god thing of Friggs) in a bonded dream/vision quest with Frigg a bit back. The cultists managed to connect with H.R. (a demi-god like power at least) and get an avatar assigned to “help” them. The Worlds Rebellion’s leaders can vision quest to communicate with Tetonicus (however that magma/earth gods name goes). Seems like chatting with the Powers That Be is a thing in this world to me. *shrugs*
So yeah she’s gonna send him off to see the mystics of Oz and he can either be nice and take the yellow brick road or she’s gonna send him to make nice with his dear and fluffy cosmos with SCIENCE!
If >I< did so of my own volition. Not "it". Almost pulled that quote off.
Maybe she’s going to force him to do it – then it wouldn’t be of his own volition?
Your Icon works so well with the comment.
Given she has already shown some expertise with mind affecting serums….
Ruh-roh.
“But hey, guess what, maybe in a few months from now he’ll come back to us in a completely different alien green body and have absolutely no memories of us! How would you like that?”
You’ve got exactly the right Avatar for that comment; you know that, right?
Gravatar win. The engine is most definitely either sentient or rapidly approaching it…
Why your group should always include a Necromancer.
Only advisable if they have no sense of smell. And don´t mind to loose the occasional finger (or arm) weeks after their “resurrection”.
poor byron, he’s the goku of the guilded age universe :<
Nah, Best is Goku.
He died, went through training on another world, came back different, and saved our heroes from a nasty alien threat from the same place he now hails from.
Byron’s more like Trunks. Comes from a place where things went to shit, tried to prevent that from happening in another place, and things went to shit even worse than they originally did.
This is pretty spot on, methinks. And Trunks always WAS my favorite character, anyway!
Aaaawww, that had me dreaming for a moment of an arrow that Gravedust had “cured” of Berserking Spirit that when fired at a crucial save the day moment would in flight make the odd sound HUUUUUUUAAAAAAAGGGHHH! and turn out to be heat seeking on anything living friend or foe just to thrust on through and fly after the next.
Oh well, the look on Gravedust face when she wants him dead will be fun too.
Arrow of the Berserker. Just sounds so cool. *sigh*
I’m putting it here so it doesn’t get prematurely buried (kinda like Syr’nj is hoping for Byron!), so I beg your indulgences.
-ahem-
The Working-Class Adventurer’s Lament
(to Fenlander, with thanks for the inspiration)
You could have a refined
Yet impoverished mind,
You could rule half the world and be crass.
What determines your fate
And the food on your plate
Ain’t your brains or your charm – it’s your class.
Simply going berserk
Ain’t considered paid work
Healers literally starve for their art;
Thiev’ry’s cunning and stealth
Is no pathway to wealth
If you didn’t have any to start.
Though we hack and slash for cold, hard cash
Our pockets won’t get lined –
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
Should they wish to command
Their sworn enemy’s land
They call us to take up the sword,
Sign the age-old refrain
Of glory and gain
And wax eloquently of reward.
But when peace comes at last
They enjoy their repast
Of pheasant and pudding and wine
While we’re out on the street
Lacking shoes for our feet
And we count – if we’re lucky – to nine.
We pluck vict’ry’s fruits, but end up like brutes
Just gnawing on the rind –
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
When the hour is struck
And – now run out of luck –
We depart this poor life, none the wiser
It should come as no shock
That beneath his black frock
Death ain’t nohow the Great Equalizer.
No matter your guild
When your party gets killed
In this two-tiered system, I’ve found
That even when dead
The rich get a bed
While the poor have to lie on the ground.
What chance, we proles, our wand’ring souls,
Eternal rest to find?
The working-class adventurer’s existence is a grind.
… I totally found an awesome reaction gif, just to remember we can’t post images, so… instead you’ll just have to settle with my undying love.
If there is a version of it on youtube you could post that.
It generally shows up as an embed if you cut and paste the whole url. There is probably some code to add to it to make it autoplay but I haven’t looked into it and would probably not only annoy everyone loading the page but maybe it would play before they got down here?
Would love to see it. Undying love is also acceptable currency. Thank you!
Absolutely in-awe: applause. [Slow clap]
Thank you very much!
Wow. Just wow.
And as a follow up, you should totally have my gravatar for that.
Thanks for the love! And the gravatar by proxy.
This should be in the story. That way it won’t get lost after the next page.
Maybe a bonus page? Please? or possibly the oath each adventurer takes when they join the guild?
That would be a dream come true for sure, almost a bigger honor than being in the DGIMC all those years ago.
[/old fart mode]
Turn down your speakers: http://guildedage.net/lament.mp4
It does not load well. But I enjoyed the 10 seconds or so before it started freezing. Either need a player that loads the file while I pause it (which this does not do) or put it on youtube.
Finally got it just by letting it stutter through with the volume off while I did other things for a while. I especially like how it ends. XD
Right click -> Save As
I cannot *WAIT* to get home and listen to this!
It’s the “WEH!” At the end that sells it.
This sir… was hilarious. I bow to you and Olentzero for making this happen.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Well done, sir. Epic. And Pokémon poster in the background really makes it…I guess lol
Excellent! Is it based on a pre-existing song? It seems like something out of The Threepenny Opera.
Thank you! It’s not based on any pre-existing song I know of, it was inspired by a comment on Monday’s comic by Fenlander.
Before I half-attempted to come up with an original tune, I heard it more or less to this one:
The structure at the beginning made me think of “Make ‘Em Laugh,” which of course is wholly inappropriate for the subject.
Gold stars are rare enough, but this?
You’ve gone supernova, good sir.
Makes me almost want to dust off my epic poem of the battle of the Burning Heels (that I haven’t touched in two years, sigh).
Thank you most kindly! Dust it off sometime, it’s sat long enough you’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes.
Absolutely lovely lighting in that second panel~
I second that. The torch-lighting on this whole page is spectacular.
Thank you! It takes a little extra effort, but it looks really good when done right.
“What I’m asking, Gravedust, is for one last climb of the tree, as it were.”
“I just want him to fire off his arrow one last time.”
While my flower is blooming… if you know what I mean…
my mother used to tell me I would go blind if I kept “Coaxing out spirits” after “much meditation” she never realy approved of me “enchanting my arrow”
Not even when it granted your spirit peace? Man, that’s hard. Harsh! I mean harsh.
“Get his spirit for me, gravvy. I’ll worry about his body.” Franken-Byron incoming. Or maybe Magitek Robo-Byron.
Certainly plenty of parts. Funny if he ended up in Bandits body WITH her and still some of the Berserker whatever.
We can rebuild him, we have the technology.
Welp this is going to get messy.
I’ll go get the mop.
mmmaybe she just wants him to see if the mystics/cosmos have any ideas of how to handle the death cult and the cross-universe contaminations?
Arrowed!
“ow, my mortality!”