So, the center of the attacking force is sitting in a meadow, alone, apparently unguarded. You go up to study it, knowing that it has control over the elemental powers of the world, and you don't suspect the bloody trees?

Who's rooting for possession? Who's rooting for him trying to pay back the noble? And who's rooting for Richard to steal the cup and take its powers with the aid of Mr. Genie?

Last panel is the first time Pella is not smiling.

This must be really bad.

Sadly, eh. I have not enjoyed the recent ones as much as I used to. The joke is weak, more of a pun than anything, and that is far below the quality I have grown to expect from this comic. I am hoping that this is just a slow phase because they are doing character development, it seems like they chose this line for the plot instead of the funny, but the funny is the vital part of this comic.

As I said, eh, and I'll reserve judgment until after Richard returns to full size.

"I have practice with killing innocents... allow me."

That just about made me cry. Quit trying to be evil, Cale! That's not who you are! *sniffle*


That tree in the last panel looks really cool. Did the chalice guy animate it, or did he put his consciousness into it? Cool effect either way.

*grabs Cale by the shoulders* You didn't kill anybody! Now go back to being perky, dammit!!

*takes a deep breath* Sorry..I've been needing to do that for quite some time now.

*sniffle* Ugh, he totally needs that! He's been so messed up. Understandably, of course, but still... *insert Cale snuggling here* He keeps trying to be "evil" and it just doesn't suit him a bit! I really miss wide-eyed sweetheart Cale.

Lousy Archmage, messing up the cute elves. *grumbles*

"I have practice with killing innocents... allow me."

i say to cale: "pella probably has more practice then you do, and she doesnt mind as much! stop being an emo-elf!"

hehehe... "aye" "eye!" "aye..."

hurrah for plays on words

that tree looked very angry

maybe well get a "march of the ents" type scene? concious (gah spelling) trees are very cool, i think.

The chalice guy? No... The chalice ITSELF did.

Look back to the flashback portion of page 98; specifically, panel 4. The boy, Jarl, found the chalice at the dig-site... the same Jarl we see possessed on today's page. As Cale astutely pointed out in panel 4 today, it IS the magic of the chalice, and the boy IS an innocent.

Hmm.. All I can say is I really like the backgrounds XD For some reason, they seemed really well done to me.

I could honestly care less about Cale being emo or not.. and as for the funny being a key part of the comic, I agree, but I like a good story over corny jokes. The whole 'eye' 'aye' thing is enough joking for me in such a situation. There has to be SOME plot and character development.

Plus, Jarl is like, so totally POSSESSED! -immediately switches off preppy voice-

And for today's "whoopsie," it seems that Cale has failed to see the huge closed eye... You'd think that his keen elven senses would have noticed that one.

Ah, I see now! The chalice infects the boy, and then the tree. A cursed item, possibly with intelligence? That's very cool! And dangerous!

ay what a day... first Eve Online: Trinity nukes windows XP and now Cale says something funny is a wrong way... Ahh what more can go wrong? richard becomes the giant midget.

Oh well maybe the possessed is actually some long lost demon sealed away in the chalice that now needs to kill the Lord of the village because he is the last living member of the family line that sealed him away in the first place so that the demon can now go free. or something...

Did nobody else see that kids face? holy hell that gave me the willies when he looked over at the tree...then again i generally get the willies from anything without pupils looking malicious.

I really, really don't think Cale really has it in him to kill another innocent if he can choose. It's not him.
Clearly he has doubts himself as to whether or not he can actually kill the boy
What he said to Pella sounds like a form of self-reassurance, for one thing.

Keen elven senses? Sure... Panel 8...or...intelligent question in panel two.

I would have to say that thus far we have seen Cale attack and kill both innocents and the "good-guys" quite often, Pella, she sure has killed her fair share, but how many poor peasant farmers has she killed in front of their sons?

The art for this page is really quite pretty. The shadows over Cale's face throughout suit his brooding mood perfectly. They fall over his eyes like a mask, at the same time he's trying to convince himself that he's evil. Beautiful.

Ok, I smell a rat. Lonely boy with chalice sitting in convenient clearing in forest? Trap? Check. Why does this boy looks so suspiciously like MILOS? Grey shirt, pointy nose, big front teeth sticking out? If that groveling rat Milos looks like a mouse with human features, this boy looks like a chipmunk. A chipmunk with Glowy Eyes Of Doom. Oh joy.


To be frank, it looks more like an Ent than an elemental. In fact, the whole thing reminds me of the similar scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Merry and Pippin climb a tree in Fangorn Forest and it turns out to be Treebeard the Ent. The scene with the tree suddenly opening an eye was even part of the movie trailer, back before the movie came out. So I guess it's a nod to LotR.


"I have practice with killing innocents... allow me."
Whoa, Cale is becoming rather sarcastic.

Also, I stand by my assessment (see previous threads) that Pella is -for all purposes of moral alignment in fantasy terms- evil. She gleefully(!) offers to kill the boy from behind with her Xena chakrum weapon, even before the boy develops the Creepy Glowy Eyes of Doom, when she and Cale still have to believe the boy is just a boy mentally enslaved by the chalice. You know, Pella, there are other ways to say hello to people than smash their heads in with flying bits of metal. Bitch. I hate her and her stupid pink lips and pink baby ears and big boobs. Also, where do these large braids actually attach to, her ears? whatever... *takes a deep breath and stops ranting*

It's a tree, Cale, go talk to it! muhahahah!
*cue lewd jokes about lonely tree-hugging elves and why Mother Nature created knotholes*

I don't really understand how people hate Pella so much... I think they're just pissed that the troll guy didn't make it into the party.

I think she's a valuable member and her personality is needed for more comic relief since Richard and Cale are pretty much out of the picture.

And I am totally buying her action figure.

But that's just me.



If Richard said that, I wonder what everyones response would be...

EDIT: Oops, two quote tags. Sorry.

Cale seems quite good at spotting the huge eyes of some creature come to attack them.
Page 57

The whole "eye" "aye" thing had me nearly hysterical with laughter.
Pella is shameless. I love her—though I DO have to wonder if she makes a habit of killing people with her chakram from behind. O_o However, she will forever be my hero for putting that axe in Richard's head. *dies laughing*

I want to grab Cale and shake his silly self. Sarcasm does NOT become him!! Besides, just knock the Chalice out of the guy's hand...

Score one for Richard.

Speaking of, second comic with no Richard? Come on now! Well, its technically, if you don't count pg. 99 where you can see the very tip of his cowl in the second panel, its the first comic without sight nor sound of our favorite warlock; not counting the 'Worst Portal Evar' arc, where there was an actual reason for him not to be there.

*sigh* It's unnerving is all. And a shame too, he would probably spontaneously generate tear ducts for the express purpose of weeping with joy upon hearing Cale's latest self-bashing statement.

I'm sure he'll find out sooner or later though, unless he returns to normal and decimates Cale before getting a chance.

I wonder if his tears would be the kind that burn on contact and leave serious health problems for generations to come...

That might not be so easy once the elementals start defending him, and they certainly can't take the chalice from him lest we have Cale possessed by it.

This is true--they have sort of lost the element of surprise. And no, I also can't think that being possessed by an evil cup would do poor Cale's self-esteem any good at this point.

I think the calice is still the soul of a Druid, Evil probily but also might have it's reasons. And if there are any gamers out there you know why Ack a Pella the dwarven bardess is so quick to attack.... It's cause she's a DWARF. duh. couse I would think Cale would have made the connection between Elementals and nature a bit sooner. Well he always was Cute but dumb, guess some girls like they're men that way.

Did we not say that characters given names would have an important part a bit later in the story? Never the less, we were a bit disappointed in the lack of Richard in this comic, although the comic is moving on, it is apparent that everyone's mind in still focused on him. With luck, he'll be back in an update or two, and big.

Also, we must note that Jarl does look like Milos. It's a smallish village, perhaps he's a relative.

Nonsense!
I'm sure that chalice would have plenty of motivation for our hero, nothing says 'cheer up' like being dominated by an ancient mind embedded in a fine goblet.

Aye jokes again...though a different one.
(aye-pods anyone?)
Even though our fave Warlock's not in this piccer,
but I don't think he's -quite- in the mood,or power,to
go fwoom some more elementals,but it's gonna be
super-efffective on treebeard-wannabe here.

we all agree that Richard rocks. He pwns in the face. But it is kind of important to know whats going on with the village and the elementals, being that the reason he feels so useless is he couldnt down an elemental, and Benny ripped him a new one for it. My guess is that the genie-ish guy will make him way too big, and thus RIchard will begin to destroy all elementals in the vicinity. but we've been over that already...

anyway, 2 pages (or so) without Richard i dont think is that big of a deal.



Cale didnt mean to kill that guy, though. Richard just pulled him out of a bush, and Cale accidentally shot him. with "the anchor" Cale had to make a conscious decision to kill a child. cales mind in that situation: implosion




i made that connection too

aye-scream

I just have one question. In the 4th panel, when Pella is asking if she can do the job, she's holding up a golden ring.

My question: What is that thing she's holding? One of her axe's handles?

It's a flying disc thing that she uses to throw at and slash enemies. She uses it quite extensively on page 82.

haha the detail on the tree is absolutely delicious. i love it.

pinky needs to get over himself. one person doesnt not constitute sufficient "practice" to justify bragging. pfft, drama queen. pella is so much more awesome than he will ever be female dwarves rawk

as for the pun... link hehe, collective unconscious? jung would be proud

Remember Xena? It's a Chakram, one of the most awesome weapons known to mankind I love Chakram so much more than throwing stars... Please don't kill me ninja fans...

I still think there's a way to knock out the chalice off of Jarl's hand. We'll need a huge diversion for the elementals to go one way while the kid is gonna be focusing on something else.

Hm... right now, the only form of diversion I have in mind is having somebody pole-dancing... Wait, that probably wouldn't work out if the pole is also made of wood...

As distracting as that may be, I think there are more effective ways, such as an arrow flying past his face.

Hmm, about Pella... Kinda beginning to think about what kinda agenda's she's keeping... Her cow-hating father is in league with the archmage after all...

bwaha... There's a nerd controling the elementals...

i hadnt really thought about it...

she seems... not....racist? would it be specisist? anyway, she doesnt seem to mind Krunch. she fought along side them in battle, so she must not have much of a problem. as for being in league with the archmage, she must be needed to fullfill the prophecy and make Cale king, or else he wouldnt have involved her.

thats what i think, anyway.

Think she knows Cale's going to be king?

Did they have nerds those days

i dont know if Pella knows. the group doesnt even really know, do they? but the archamge knew, obviously, and he told Pella to meet them and take to the catacombs, so he must have thought she was important.

or maybe he just thought that an extra kick-ass fighter wouldnt hurt their chances of survivng the battle

Sweet, sweet justice. Now who doesn't have a date for prom night? That's right! You don't! Because I just killed your girlfriend! And all the other little witches on the cheerleading squad! Bwahahahaaaa!

I'm not sure whether or not Pella knows Cale's destiny, but I am curious to see how Cale finds out.

Cale will probably turn his calling down if he was chosen to be king. only thinking that he would destroy his kingdom. Then Richard would become king and start his dream of slaughtering the world

Tecnically, hasn't Richard started that already?

I guess. Then he just greatly progresses his dream of slaughtering the world

That seems more plausible.

Cale probably isnt going to find out that he going to be king for a while...probably long enough for him to come to grips with what was done. unless he already is king somewhere but doesnt know it since they changed the past, thus affecting the future. but how will he become king if that is not the case?

maybe he'll do something heroic, like killing an evil tyrant and setting a people free, thus lifting the guilt he has on his shoulders right now (at least a little) and making him ready to be a king.

i dunno...

what ideas do you guys have?

Incorrect. Last panel of page 78 she's not smiling. When the dragon shows up.

Something heroic like saving a village from an army of elementals???

It's not heroic if he does it for personal gain. Remember that he wanted to know if they'd get paid before accepting.