Dr. Simon
2013-01-10, 03:16 AM
Whilst Sir Thumb is recovering from his battle with the Evil Glass, I thought I'd go back and refresh my memory with a bit of an archive binge. Then I thought that it might be fun to share this with everyone. I'm going to post thoughts and synopses in 50 strip batches. There's no way I'll cover every little point, so please add your own observations to mine.
Strips 1-50
And so we begin with the Dungeon Crawlin’ Fools in media res, fighting goblins just as they are upgraded to 3.5 edition, something that works out well for Elan, Durkon and Roy, but all Belkar gets is a smaller weapon (hee hee).
This sets the tone for the early batch of episodes, which feature a large number of jokes at the expense at the D&D rules – since armour provides a penalty to stealth checks, Elan reasons that if he is naked, he is invisible. Haley employs the rogue class ability “evasion” without apparently moving. When she gains initiative but forgets, everyone stands around waiting and Elan has to remind her. Durkon misses a goblin with two attacks, but when Roy reminds him of the bonuses that he forgot to apply, the goblin retrospectively gets injured, then dies. Lots of that kind of thing.
There are character moments too, however. Elan suffers the worst experience of school sports – getting picked last for the team. Vaarsuvius drones on so incessantly about his arcane power that he bores some goblins to sleep rather than cast a sleep spell. At this stage the characters are still quite broadly drawn along typical class stereotypes (except Roy, who is smart for a fighter). Plenty of strips are throwaway gags and one-offs .
But wait, there is a plot amongst the random encounters with goblins.
We first get glimpses of this when Elan uses Summon Plot Exposition to explain that the party is exploring the Dungeon of Durokan in order to defeat the evil lich Xykon, and get his treasure. At this stage, they believe that Xykon built the dungeon. Not long after, Roy’s father Eugene Greenhilt shows up as a ghost. Eugene reminds Roy that the Greenhilt family has sworn revenge on Xykon for killing Eugene’s old master. Eugene leaves the cryptic clue that “when the goat turns red strikes true”, but sadly for father-son relations it’s clear the Eugene, a mage, thinks little of Roy’s chosen career of fighter and his ability to actually defeat Xykon.
The prophecy appears to be fulfilled when the party encounter, and defeat, the chimera Trigak, a three-for-the-price-of-one mercenary sent by Xykon. We get our first (non-flashback) glimpse of Team Evil when the scene cuts to Xykon watching on his crystal ball along with his as-yet-unnamed goblin cleric henchman and the mysterious Monster in the Darkness.
After more goblin encounters, some traps and a meeting with a mind flayer (with the first appearance of lawyers Jones and Rodriguez) the part eventually meets up with another party of a suspiciously similar composition – the Linear Guild. Despite Haley’s misgivings, particularly about Sabine (because red leather armour=Evil) the Order team up with Guild to help them find the amulet of Dorukan, guarded by three elementally-themed sigils. As the part splits up, Nale reveals to Elan what has been obvious to everyone else – that they are long-lost twins. This strip, #50, is the first two-page strip and also gives us the first appearance of Tarquin, seen in flashback. The “T” on his banner led many to believe that he was the Lord Tyranus mentioned later as holding Haley’s father captive.
Overall, then, these strips go for humour over plot. The art style seems slightly primitive compared to later on – I think the outlines are thicker on the characters and there are a few mouth shapes that become more refined in later strips; also these strips still have the slightly curvy panel borders whereas the borders become straighter later on, and this adds to the “cartoony” nature of the strip.
Interesting how many recurring characters are introduced, as well as the belt of gender changing which will play a plot role later, Vaarsuvius’s lust for power and Belkar’s evil alignment is hinted at when he is not affected by an unholy blight spell.
Strips 1-50
And so we begin with the Dungeon Crawlin’ Fools in media res, fighting goblins just as they are upgraded to 3.5 edition, something that works out well for Elan, Durkon and Roy, but all Belkar gets is a smaller weapon (hee hee).
This sets the tone for the early batch of episodes, which feature a large number of jokes at the expense at the D&D rules – since armour provides a penalty to stealth checks, Elan reasons that if he is naked, he is invisible. Haley employs the rogue class ability “evasion” without apparently moving. When she gains initiative but forgets, everyone stands around waiting and Elan has to remind her. Durkon misses a goblin with two attacks, but when Roy reminds him of the bonuses that he forgot to apply, the goblin retrospectively gets injured, then dies. Lots of that kind of thing.
There are character moments too, however. Elan suffers the worst experience of school sports – getting picked last for the team. Vaarsuvius drones on so incessantly about his arcane power that he bores some goblins to sleep rather than cast a sleep spell. At this stage the characters are still quite broadly drawn along typical class stereotypes (except Roy, who is smart for a fighter). Plenty of strips are throwaway gags and one-offs .
But wait, there is a plot amongst the random encounters with goblins.
We first get glimpses of this when Elan uses Summon Plot Exposition to explain that the party is exploring the Dungeon of Durokan in order to defeat the evil lich Xykon, and get his treasure. At this stage, they believe that Xykon built the dungeon. Not long after, Roy’s father Eugene Greenhilt shows up as a ghost. Eugene reminds Roy that the Greenhilt family has sworn revenge on Xykon for killing Eugene’s old master. Eugene leaves the cryptic clue that “when the goat turns red strikes true”, but sadly for father-son relations it’s clear the Eugene, a mage, thinks little of Roy’s chosen career of fighter and his ability to actually defeat Xykon.
The prophecy appears to be fulfilled when the party encounter, and defeat, the chimera Trigak, a three-for-the-price-of-one mercenary sent by Xykon. We get our first (non-flashback) glimpse of Team Evil when the scene cuts to Xykon watching on his crystal ball along with his as-yet-unnamed goblin cleric henchman and the mysterious Monster in the Darkness.
After more goblin encounters, some traps and a meeting with a mind flayer (with the first appearance of lawyers Jones and Rodriguez) the part eventually meets up with another party of a suspiciously similar composition – the Linear Guild. Despite Haley’s misgivings, particularly about Sabine (because red leather armour=Evil) the Order team up with Guild to help them find the amulet of Dorukan, guarded by three elementally-themed sigils. As the part splits up, Nale reveals to Elan what has been obvious to everyone else – that they are long-lost twins. This strip, #50, is the first two-page strip and also gives us the first appearance of Tarquin, seen in flashback. The “T” on his banner led many to believe that he was the Lord Tyranus mentioned later as holding Haley’s father captive.
Overall, then, these strips go for humour over plot. The art style seems slightly primitive compared to later on – I think the outlines are thicker on the characters and there are a few mouth shapes that become more refined in later strips; also these strips still have the slightly curvy panel borders whereas the borders become straighter later on, and this adds to the “cartoony” nature of the strip.
Interesting how many recurring characters are introduced, as well as the belt of gender changing which will play a plot role later, Vaarsuvius’s lust for power and Belkar’s evil alignment is hinted at when he is not affected by an unholy blight spell.