Chapter 4 – Page 21
Once again, we’d like to thank our crack team of Continuity Errorists. Payet Best’s stunt double was duly sacked for not bringing his prosthetic ears to the set.
Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip
Ha! Best is dead. Or rather, he soon will be.
Hehe… “edgy”. That’s very punny.
Either Best has some human in him that literally comes out at times, or there was a littttllleeee art goof on this page.
Considering Byron’s oath, Best better hope so.
Best’s new ear trick could save his life!
We all knew this was coming, but still…Payet, you stupid, stupid moron, you.
Ya know…while I don’t actively hate Payet…I do find myself wondering just how much of a beating he can take.
Hopefully more than his armor…
Oh man on man oh MAN! Shit is about to get sweet!
Also, there is something I absolutely love about Frigg’s single-mindedness. That last panel was the perfect touch.
Hm. His ear DID get round in one panel, huh?
I’m a bit confused on how the axe hit him. Is it flying past his shoulder and just cut it, or is it somehow stuck in his shoulder by that ridiculously tiny amount?
Best clocked him with the handle of his axe.
eh, i think its stuck, at least, i hope so, cause that would be more annoying to best, and has the most chance of byron retrieving quicly to slice and dice.
I’m pretty sure that Byron just clipped him with one of the Axe Twins, but if it somehow managed to jam in his joint… well, were I Best, I would not want to move.
In the first panel Byron is walking away, so the guess would be that Best clocked him in the back of the head with his hilt while Byron had his back turned while walking away…further explaining how big of a douche Best is.
Fuck him up byron… FUCK…HIM…UP!!!! (or atleast thats what i thought when best hit him)
Hopefully Byron wins but… Best kinda stood out as MVP during that last mission. My money is on Frigg delivering a knockout on Best in the second round
We haven’t *Actually* seen Byron bezerk yet…
Taunt not the dragon in its lair, young Best. For thou art squishy, and taste good with ketchup.
Woo! Party in-fighting! \o/ If this were a pencil-and-paper RPG, their players would doubtlessly be about to start hurling D4s at eachother. (Because really, what good are those things except as deadly projectiles/caltrops??)
Hey, I’m good for many things!
Magic Missiles and a host of other spells as well als Daggers, Hand Crossbows and ability damage rolls. ;) Never played a Wizard or Assassin in D&D3, I guess?
If I recall correctly, some of Palladium Books’ RPGs use D4s for character generation in some cases.
The D12 on the other hand, doesn’t see much action… Poor thing.
d12’s are for Great Axes, which are great indeed…esp when Keen. And if the wielder has Improved Critical…!
we use D12s to mark height when things get all 3D… it’s not like the D12 on the table has been rolled by anyone.
Bite your tongue! The Barbarian uses the d12! Does no-one love the poor Barbarian? No-one?
And if you really want to see nasty thigns with improved critical, dual keen vorpal rapiers when you have improved critical. 8 attacks, and you insty-kill on a 9. Except against undead and so on, which is a real pain because it’s a great way to kill a lych sorceror.
I love the Frigg does not care even a little about Best getting messed up.
But not as much as I love Byron for the asskicking which is about to commence. My hero!
Poor Payet.
No, seriously…and not just because of the possibly fatal whooping he’s about to recieve.
Most folks hating on Payet have apparently chosen to forget what kind of background this guy came from. He didn’t start out a bad guy. he was an honest, down on his luck “Shit” Elf..who from what we saw in his introductory panels, was TREATED like shit most of his life. Then, one bewildering case of mistaken identity later, he’s being treated like a GOD by those naieve townspeople…until he starts to buy his own press. Even when he walked off with the town’s wealth, he didn’t do it to delibrately rob/ruin them..he really thought it was all part of his prophecied destiny as an epic hero. He’s never DELIBRATELY hurt/killed anybody except the villians of the piece…he’s just so overconfident it never occurs to him that he might screw things up showing off. And as for attacking Byron….we ALL know Payet is a very competant fighter. if he had WANTED to kill Byron, Byron would be dead. He thumped Byron one for insulting him..a stupid move, but not an evil one. And now he’s most likely going to be killed and/or disgraced…or possibly follow the terrible cliche of turning full villian because he did the job, got insulted for doing it, then got the crap beaten out of him. I’m not saying Payet was right in what he did…or that Byron was wrong in his assesment…but Payet doesn’t deserve what’s coming to him.
He’s probably going to get it anyway.
Being a douche is NOT a capital offence.
I agree with this guy.
Considering Payet gets mentioned in the little pre-chapter five-page future-mission things, he’s not going to get killed. What, you think Syr’Nj is just going to stand around while they try to take off each others’ heads? Or Gravedust?
Whoops, got the first part wrong. But the second half still stands. I don’t think Best would have gotten an intro if he was going to go down.
Best is on the cover image of the first chapter (it should’ve tipped me off that it’s called “Five for Fighting” but there’s six of them). And the next chapter says “Featuring a Payet Best solo adventure,” though I wouldn’t put it past the authors to write “Decomposing with Payet Best.”
I do agree, though — Syrn’j may have the resources now to do something more than shout “Why are you doing this?” Though I don’t know if that’d extend to stopping Byron when he’s angry.
Let’s be fair. This early in a story you’re not going to kill off a main character when they could escape to come back to hinder the party at every twist and turn.
It’d be a waste!
A public dressing down is probably what Payet needs to cure him of (some of) his ego-mania.
Things shouldn’t get too out of hand, I think? Most of the party are sensible individuals. ;)
Disagree, Chaotik74. Getting over your personal bad experiences is everyone’s mission in life. An ugly history explains being a bad person, but it certainly isn’t an excuse. And considering his story it’s even worse. ;) Not openly committing an evil act, but partaking in one, against better knowledge, doesn’t make a good deed. In fact, rather the opposite.
I like Payet, mainly *because* he is an a-hole, but he totally deserves getting clobbered. ^^
That’s the difference between the adults and the children, dude.
The adults have had rough patches too… they just don’t try to use them as excuses for dickish behavior.
That, darn it, not The. Although I’m willing to give Frigg a definitive.
THE PUNS!!
I STILL like Best more then any of them. Damn he’s so fucking witty!
Frigg gets winner. I hope she can straighten out if she wants to fight the winner or have sex with him.
Knowing Frigg? A combo. It would be funny if Berserker-mode Byron made a “pass” at her cause hey, berserker’s have three modes (kill, breed, and dead). She’d probably like it, but be sorely disappointed the rest of the time.
I have to agree the bard should have thought twice about that, the guy just told him he’s a berserker and he struck him from behind because he didn’t like the guy telling him off!
This should be interesting, he might wield a great axe from the looks of it but unless Byron has the patience of a saint the rest of the party had better stop this fight before it gets really messy!
Is it just me or does Byron have a thing for putting his axe in opponents’ shoulders?
It looks like they both…
*puts on sunglasses*
…have an axe to grind.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
I think best is going to get an axe kicking.
Heh, Best tried to suck-punch Byron just like the giant guard did. I guess his point was something on the lines of: ” Your plans worked like shit, and things just happened around here because I ACTED”.
After all, he took down the guard, did an number on the pirates and found a way to save them from being attacked by the city defenses, while landing the ship.
Meanwhile, Byron the Berserker took a nap, tried to make “pirate-puppets” and struggled to overcome a little kid.
Not bad for someone that after all, is just a pampered “shit-elf”. Specially because things worked on the end, with the kids un-harmed against all the odds. Luck is an important skill too.
I feel like there was a sound effect missing in the last panel there. I didn’t even see Byron’s Axe in Best’s shoulder the first time around. If there had been a KA-THUNK or some other noise-some effect, I think it mighta helped. . . just a suggestion.
I like where this is going though.
Cheers,
Cote
I think Best is about to be made very, very dead, personally. Byron has seemed fairly limited the past few chapters because he doesn’t kill humans, that’s not in his way this time. We haven’t really seen him angry because he’s had no reason to be. A shit elf just tossed a bunch of children off of an airship and when confronted about it knocked Byron to the ground. I gotta tell you, playing even the most collected Barbarian in the world, if this happened while I was playing a tabletop game, my next words would be, “I rage.”
I can’t help but find myself being one of the few rooting for Best.
Maybe it’s because he turned out to have a much stronger character than one would expect from a “pansy bard”.
Maybe it’s an instinctual reaction to everyone else being against him.
Or maybe it’s the fact that Best practically ran the party through the quest while Byron spend most of the time out cold or subduing a child while having the nerve to take the moral high ground even though he’s basically a mercenary who works for money and the joy of violence.
Agreed.
Spoony Bard has earned his keep, and warrants at least a little respect from Mr Committee McKobold-Skinner.
Shit elf, compost elf, what’s the difference?
I hope Byron doesn’t kill Best.
But I sure hope he lays the subdual damage on and knocks the sucker out.
Best may have proven he has some skills, but I agree that he violated the terms of the party’s mission by endangering (perceived danger if not actual resulting damage) the very beings they were meant to rescue. And Best’s snide little comment about “children aren’t reliable witnesses” clearly pushed Byron’s buttons.
Best has talents; but no honor. And frankly I wouldn’t want him on my team either unless I could ensure that he’d at least treat the party and the party’s goals with more respect.
So yeah, Byron, kick his ass!
Luckily they have a healer in the group. Or this would have a really, really bad outcome. For everyone.
Except Frigg.
I’d kinda like to see Best win, just to see him fight Frigg. It’ll probably end with both their clothes off… XD
Bah, I hate getting up late and only being able to see the last three comments…
Worst just made a serious tactical error. Even if he manages to beat down Byron, Frigg is going to Frigg him up. That “Axe” is going to have a real hard time getting through full Plate and a Tower shield.
I love Frigg’s expression in that last panel. I think she’s looking for someone to take out her frustration about that earlier “Interruption”, and I don’t think she cares who it is.
I used to think so too, but there’s a “Previous Comments” link at the bottom that will show you the rest. Took me quite a while to find it, it’s not all that obvious.
It occurs to me that Byron gets hit in the back of the head a lot.
Based on the results, they are failing to follow Sun Tzu: attack where the enemy is weak, not where he is thickest.
Payet Best used Douche Attack on Byron!
It’s not very effective.
As much as I like Best now-a-days, that wasn’t a good idea. Byron’s only against people killing their own kind, and he’s sure as hell not a shit elf, so it’s a No Holds Barred Beatdown.
Although Byron did just throw half his armament to inflict a Just A Flesh Wound.
Best lost his elf ears in P3.
Good page, though. These things happen.
I was gonna argue that it was simply the angle of the frame; its facing him side on and Elf ears in this comic stick out quite far to the side, so his long ear will line up and look kinda human…
But nah, looking at the jaw line your right, it should still have some length.
He threw half his armament because throwing both would disarm himself. Byron has not previously shown signs of extreme stupidity.
Well, half the fun will be tearing it back out at least.
Also, this is a friendly reminder toward Syr’nj and Gravedust:
DON’T YOU FUCKTARDS DARE BREAK THIS UP.
As much as I like Best now-a-days, that wasn’t a good idea. Byron’s only against people killing their own kind, and he’s sure as hell not a shit elf, so it’s a No Holds Barred Beatdown.
Although Byron did just throw half his armament to inflict a Just A Flesh Wound.
Do I hear an echo?
If (Michelle == Trader-in-Town) {
…. +5 funny
}
else{
…. -100 WTF
…. -15 lame
}
For those of us who know Java only a little…
Given the url that Michelle’s name is linked to, I’m guessing that a spambot just copied TraderInTown’s post, hoping it’d be on topic.
That stupid prick. You can’t steal my brand of lackadasical wit.
Showdown time! Make it bloody.
Stupid move Best, good chance Byron threw his fist Axe just to give best a sporting before cleaving his head in half with the other.
I may be immature, but I feel compelled to point out that Best’s axe is bigger than Byron’s. Either this is an accurate reflection, or Best is compensating for something. Although, would he be as much of a douche if he wasn’t well-endowed? Maybe Byron is packing more heat but doesn’t feel the need to advertise it. It’s like trying to read an opponent in a poker game.
I feel like I’ve lowered the tone. x_x
Reading someone’s weapons as a sign of how “endowed” they are… Very deep. Penetration, that is… XD
Double post for the win.
If you didnt lower the tone, I certainly did.
Let’s hope that we find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Payet Pop.
The Auld Grump, most assuredly not a member of the Best fan club.
Remember the Lesson of Hirohito: One really great way to arouse a mighty righteous anger… is to sneak attack a badass.
I’m usually against In-Party fighting…but….
FUCK HIM UP BYRON!
I love Frigg, I really do.
What do you want to bet that Byron has returning on that axe?
Really hope Byron cleaves that twat.
I don’t think that’s “just” a flesh wound. For all we know, it could just have hit the skin and still have quite some momentum.
Also, Berserker. That’s like a prestige class of Barbarians.
Am I the only one that took Frigg’s comment sexually? Like… she wants the winner in bed?
My first impression was that her comment was directed at Best, that he’s “her winner”. But I don’t know anymore…
Nope. Songbird, you weren’t. And that would be something worth fighting for, methinks.
As to El Douche De Baggeeo, yeah, hope he gets his clocked cleaned and his head cleaved.
And what possible attack/defense move would make him move his axe blade to such an unusuable position?
To be honest, it looks to me as though he was expecting that lobbed lollipop just a bit lower than it had come. Myself, I’d have been going for a knee.
I’m kinda of the beleif that Frigg could kick either Byron or Best’s bests across the continent and back again, while laughing.
That’s because Best and Byron wasted points in things like “Diplomacy” and “Business” and “Guitar”, whereas Frigg just put them all into “Hurt Things”, except for one point in “Speak Language: Intertubes”.
LOL
you know, in 4th ed D&D there’s a barbarian path called “Calm Fury”. it’s ability is that they don’t really need to rage to throw angry-barbarian-appropriate amounts of dice at your face. they just bottle up all that anger and psycotherapy-worthy emotions and release it gradually through axe-in-skull therapy rather then a several round burst of mouth-frothing-fury.
i’m starting to think that our friend Byron might just be a Calm Fury. if so, it might be best if Payet runs away as fast as his brittle little elf legs can take him.
I agree wit Oxybe, I’ve had a co-player with that skill, the rest of the characters would just stand at the bar and let HER (yep her) clean house. It was….AWSOME!
My first impression was that her comment was directed at Best, that he’s “her winner”. But I don’t know anymore…
I agree wit Oxybe, I’ve had a co-player with that skill, the rest of the characters would just stand at the bar and let HER (yep her) clean house. It was….AWSOME!
YES! YES! FIGHT FIGHTFIGHFIGHTFIGHT!!!!
KIll him Byron!
I´m for Patey and not Byron.
Byron didn´t killed anyone in the whole quest, in the first fight he was down after one hit and when he came up from almost losing to a kid, the second fight of one vs 15 was OVER already. All killed by Patey.
Byron´s plan sounds good but Patey´s actions were the ones who earned their payment, not Byron´s, he did nothing compared to the *Shit* elf and how shitty is that if you´re lower than a Shit elf. :/
Oh well, Shit elf will get what he was written for, probably a gruesome death or something. Sad, but well some have to die for the self-righouts holy-than-you, i-won´t-kill-humans-and-am-all-about-diplomacy berserker so that his fanbase is happy.
Joy…
Dude just cut Best’s guitar strings with a thrown axe while prone. He’s a pretty damn good shot (not that we didn’t already know that when he Ranged Pin’d a running guy to the wall with them). The injury makes me think of Bunraku (a movie – the villain uses throwing axes similar in shape to Byron’s, and hits a character in the shoulder like that). Of course, this being Best, a little thing like an enormous hatchet buried six inches in his rotator cuff won’t stop him from one-shotting the berserker who never goes berserk.